LYDIA

Lydia is contrast for the one that is about to come.

She is like the other women from my women’s class, she seemed to bring them to God. I was blessed with a man who knew God, he believed, he just didn’t attend with me. Many of the women in my class were alone in how they felt. It doesn’t say if she attended Sabbath alone. I’ve heard that she led her family to God. I doesn’t tell me that her husband had been disillusioned by how the church was run or if someone had said he would go to hell for his dragging main when he was a teenager, therefore, he wouldn’t step foot in a church for anything less than a funeral or a wedding like some had said.

Some believe that she was a woman of wealth and could easily except guest into her home. I don’t think it matters if she could afford it or not she was the kind of woman who gave hospitality. Hospitality was important during that time. We’ve lost that through the years. We are distrustful of strangers. Would I, in now a days time, be setting up for Sabbath by the river and listen to Paul’s message? Would I turn my ears away? I’m skeptical these days we have so many television ministers ready to heal us for a dollar. So many false teachings. I suppose they too had false teachings, a profit for profit. In a city where a huge amount of wealth has been made by a family promising healing and the promise of a better way I’m skeptical.

The great thing about this little story is that Lydia is mentioned by name for her life’s work, bringing her family to God. It’s a small peak into a woman’s life. It gives us strength when we are the ones who hold fast to our beliefs and pray for our family to join us. It gave me an example of how God can work in our lives and hearts. I was asked when attending the class for a visit when my husband wasn’t able to be in church, (I wanted to visit my gals) how I did it. My response was this "I didn’t do it, God did. You see it was in His time not mine."

Acts 16:13-15 TNIV

13 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. 14 One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. 15 When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. "If you consider me a believer in the Lord," she said, "come and stay at my house." And she persuaded us.