Resources > Bible Studies RISK : Camera Operators Instruction Manual Posted by Rev. Jeff Dixon, Senior Equipping Minister, CCC Ministries on Sep 16, 2007, 17:06

Camera Operators Instruction Manual

RISK: Reframing Your Problems (Part 2)

Acts 16:16-35

These are the notes from the Bible Study as taught by Jeff Dixon. You can print these out to reference as you listen and/or watch this next installment in the RISK series. Specifically this study is the second installment of how to reframe your problems.

We have seen that Risk takers must learn to... 

Defy the odds

Reframe problems

Embrace uncertainty

Seize our opportunities

Face our fears

Today we go to Acts 16

Paul and Silas are in a Philippian dungeon

This is not a five star jail

Landing in an ancient mid-eastern prison isn’t much better than being in a pit with a lion on a snowy day

A few hours earlier, Paul had cast a demon out of fortune teller and her master didn’t like it because his fortune telling slave was no longer a cash cow. So Paul and Silas were arrested

Here is the first lesson we must learn to continue to reframe our problems 

Learn to Turn Off The Auto Focus
(v.16-24)

16Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling.

17This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved."

18She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!" At that moment the spirit left her.

 19When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities.

20They brought them before the magistrates and said, "These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar

21by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice."

 22The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten.

23After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully.

24Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

The struggle or problem for most of us is that we are always focused on ourselves…what we want, we think, we feel…

It tends to cloud our judgment

If I’m Paul and Silas I am physically, emotionally, and spiritually dry.

I have been drained to the last drop

I’ve got nothing left to give

My back is still bleeding from the beating and I am in a maximum-security cell block

I am slightly ticked at God because he didn’t keep me out of this mess

After all, they were preaching the gospel

Circumstances can’t and don’t get much worse than this

That is why their reaction is so remarkable

If the verse had been written about me, it probably would have read

“Around midnight, Jeff was complaining about his circumstance”

But not these two

They just did not focus on themselves….

Isn’t that the bulk of our problems at times…our focus is automatically on ourselves….

If we learn the first lesson then we must make a decision. The decision is to... 

Purpose to Change Your Angle

(v.25)

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.

Let me share something on a personal level

When I get into a spiritual or emotional rut or slump it is usually because I have zoomed in on a problem

I have fixated on something

I have obsessed about something

Something that I am bothered by about someone else, some circumstance

And when that happens, nine out of ten times the solution is zooming out to get some perspective….

So how do we zoom out?

The one word answer is worship

Don’t ever let what is wrong with you keep you from worshiping what is right with God!

Reframing is about shifting focus

Stop focusing on what is wrong with your circumstances

Start focusing on what is right with God

Paul and Silas could have zoomed in and complained

                We cast out the demon

                We are missionaries

                We get beaten and tossed in jail

                Instead of watching our backs God let our backs get beaten

They made a choice to worship God in spite of the circumstances

And this is often the most difficult and important choice we can make

Worship is zooming out and refocusing on the big picture

Worship is forgetting about what is wrong with you and what is right with God

                It is like hitting the refresh key on your computer

                It recalibrates your spirit

                It renews your mind

                It energizes you to find something to praise Him for when everything else is going wrong

Is it easy?

Absolutely NOT!

But one of the purest forms of worship is praising God when you don’t feel like it, because it proves that worship is not just circumstantial

It never ceases to amaze me how the same adversity can affect two people so differently-what poisons one person will sweeten the spirit of another

One person ends us with a critical soul and the other becomes a spiritual catalyst

Al Braca worked as a corporate bond trader. His office was on the 105th floor of Tower One in the World Trade Center. A week after the tower was hit and collapsed, Al's body was found in the rubble.

According to his wife, Jeannie, Al hated his job; he couldn't stand the environment. It was a world completely out of sync with his Christian values.

But he wouldn't quit. He was convinced that God wanted him to stay there, to be a light in the darkness.

The Bracas learned that Al had indeed been ministering to people during the attack. Reports trickled in from friends and acquaintances. Some people on the 105th floor had made a last call or sent e-mails to a loved one saying that "a man" was leading people in prayer. A few referred to Al by name. When Al realized that they were trapped in the building and would not be able to escape, he shared the gospel with a group of 50 co-workers and led them in prayer.

Adapted from Focus On the Family (September 2002)

Last, but not least you must also

Reset Your Default Settings

(v.26-35) you can read it in a moment....

There are two types of people in the world

Worshipers and Complainers

There is not much circumstantial difference between the two

Complainers will always find something to complain about

Worshipers will always find something to praise God about

They simply have different default settings

What do you default to….?

When despair tries to take me under…I choose life.

When I wonder what God could possibly be thinking…I choose trust.

When I desperately want relief from unrelenting reality…I choose perseverance.

When I feel oppressed by my disappointment and sorrow…I choose gratitude.

When I want to keep my feelings to myself…I choose vulnerability.

When nothing goes according to my plan…I choose relinquishment.

When I want to point the finger…I choose forgiveness.

When I want to give up…I choose purposeful action.

Paul and Silas were worshipers

                Their hands and feet were chained, but you cannot chain the human spirit

                What they were singing is not available on itunes

                It probably didn’t sound so good

                But it did give cause for the others near them to listen

They worshiped and it caused a chain reaction

That is what worship does

It changes the spiritual atmosphere

It charges the spiritual atmosphere

Now the passage.... 

26Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose.

27The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped.

28But Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself! We are all here!"

29The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

 31They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household."

32Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized.

34The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole family.

 35When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: "Release those men."

36The jailer told Paul, "The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace."

When you worship it produces shock waves off the Richter scale

Prison doors fly open, chains fall off

But then the prisoners don’t leave

In an amazing moment the jailer and his family are baptized in the middle of the night

You can’t script these kinds of stories

They actually happen because when you really worship you can never tell what will happen next

Think about it:

The circumstances you complain about become the chains that imprison you

Worship is the way out

Worship reframes our problems and refocuses our lives

The outcome of your life is determined by the outlook of your life

If your outlook is God driven, the outcome is God breathed

If you don’t turn your adversity into ministry

Then your pain remains your pain

If you turn adversity into ministry that God allows your pain to be another’s gain!

Mensa is an organization whose members have an IQ of 140 or higher. A few years ago, there was a Mensa convention in San Francisco, and several members lunched at a local café. While dining, they discovered that their saltshaker contained pepper and their peppershaker was full of salt. How could they swap the contents of the bottles without spilling, and using only the implements at hand? Clearly this was a job for Mensa! The group debated and presented ideas, and finally came up with a brilliant solution involving a napkin, a straw, and an empty saucer. They called the waitress over to dazzle her with their solution.

"Ma'am," they said, "we couldn't help but notice that the peppershaker contains salt and the saltshaker"

"Oh," the waitress interrupted. "Sorry about that." She unscrewed the caps of both bottles and switched them.

Change the way you look at things, the way you approach life, and really live!