Tag: Lydia

Posted in Christian, Christian Service, Life Inspiration, Uncategorized

Forever My Lydia

Written by talk2shari Published Discussion Leave a Comment on Forever My Lydia

After fourteen hours of travel, as a very tired and weary traveler, I pulled onto the tree line streets of Windom, Minnesota for the very first time in my life. I had loved seeing a part of our nation I had never had the opportunity to visit, but I had no idea on that day how much I would come to love the city of Windom, but even more so the people. I had little to no apprehension of stepping out of my car and knocking on the door of an address I had been given to meet a woman who had opened up her home for the purpose of hosting me during my stay. Her name was Loretta Jackson. A woman small in stature, but huge in heart. She answered the door with a smile that lit up the outdoors and we were fast friends. 

We had two things in common. First of all we both loved and served the Lord. Secondly, we were married to fire fighters, although her fighter husband had retired. We started talking when she opened the door and we didn’t stop until she and I hugged goodbye a week later. Her home was modest and filled with memories of her life that showed her love for her family and friends. She and I shared our work in the ministry and how God had changed our lives through allowing us to serve. God has been good to me to allow me the privilege of knowing some of His greatest servants. 

Loretta will forever be my Lydia. 

Acts 16:14-15 KJVS

[14] And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us : whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. [15] And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us.

By the time I came to know Loretta, she was retired and up in years, but like Lydia she never stopped working. While there were certainly younger women who could have stepped in and did what Loretta did for the Lord, she knew that God had called her to serve, so serve she would! 

One story that will let you understand her heart as I came to appreciate it was the call she received from another church, not of her Denomination. This is how crazy our religious world has become. Loretta had such a reputation as a woman of God in the Windom community, that this church of what I would consider dead religion, called her to teach their children. They had no people in their own congregation who would volunteer to teach the children about the Lord Jesus Christ, and even thought they knew the doctrinal differences that they had with Loretta’s Baptist background, they wanted her to do it. And so, armed with her baptist curriculum, she taught and the children learned that God loved them, because Loretta loved them. Oh, that story brings me such joy! Because it wouldn’t happen just anywhere and it wouldn’t happen with just anyone. Loretta, like Lydia, worshipped God with an open heart and she attended to the things of God and the people saw. 

Oh to be known as a Lydia! Oh to be known as a Loretta!

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Empty Satan’s Pockets

Written by talk2shari Published Discussion Leave a Comment on Empty Satan’s Pockets

 

Acts 16:14-20

“And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us.  And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.  And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour. And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers, And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city,”

There is great financial gain in many avenues of life, some in sin and some in labor; both have one often common characteristic… distraction. There were two such women in the book of Acts 16 and both have a story of financial freedom. Lydia, merchant in the city of Thyatira was “all that and a bag of chips” as the saying goes, she worshipped God and was a successful woman in the textile industry. And then came Paul! and all of a sudden it was no longer about selling purple fabric but about serving Christ. It’s an oddity to the world how a person can walk away from what they view as success and begin serving the Lord. Lydia’s finances had no doubt brought her freedoms that few women in that era would have been afforded; but her focus changed when the Lord opened her heart to see what great freedom serving Christ brought. Lydia experienced the greatest freedom any woman could have… the freedom that seeing your family serve Christ and the knowledge that come what may, their souls are in the hands of the Master.

And then there was the woman without a name, who through her demon possession was taken advantage of and used as money making scheme by wicked men. Men who were VERY upset, when at Paul’s command in the name of Jesus de-demonized her and she experienced the freedom of deliverance from the financial bondage those men had over her life. On both ends of the spectrum, from the poverty to powerful the same holds true with regards to money… If you’re not using what you have for the glory of God, then you’ll not receive the full blessing of it. When Lydia opened her heart to the things of God, it didn’t say she stopped selling purple, but I have a feeling her purple peddling priorities changed. When the lady possessed with the demon was healed her words that had once distracted those delivering the gospel now focused those who witnessed her healing onto the glory of God!

Luke 16:13 says that “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

I’m getting a firmer grasp on that… unfocused finances are a distraction. Lydia opened up her home and began focusing her financial gain on the things of the Lord and she her household were baptized. Wow. The unnamed lady was no longer a tool in the hands of the Devil but was now a weapon in the warfare, and people were angry. Can I tell you if you’re finances are serving Satan, there’s going to be some unhappy people when you stop. But oh the gain! What about your finances? Are they Christ focused or world centered? Are you asking God what He wants you to do with your gain? Are you allowing your finances to be used in non-glorifying ways? Heavy questions, but worth pondering.