Lydia - the First European Convert

Here is what tradition teaches that Lydia looked like.  

The Place of Lydia's Baptism

Here is the spot where Paul baptized Lydia, the first European convert.

A Simple Fool's Prayer

Lord, let me be a simple fool, not a hardened fool. Though I make many mistakes in life, I want to learn from those mistakes. I want to improve; to do what is right. As the Bible says, to be a "simple fool." Please never let me become a hardened fool who does not listen or learn from mistakes. I pray for your guidance, direction, and wisdom each and every day. Thank you for hearing me. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

A Goal-Oriented Spiritual Life

Paul concludes his spiritual exhortation in 1 Corinthians 9 with a challenge to Christians to have a goal-oriented spiritual life (see verses 24-27). It is pretty evident that Paul is advocating a purposeful, goal-oriented spiritual life. He focuses on this quality of the athletes of the Ithsmian Games. He says this is the way he lives his life - doing the things calculated to win (disciplined training schedule; efficiency in effort)- but for different goals and for a different prize. And he directly calls on the Corinthian Christians (and us) to imitate him in this area.

Yet, like the Corinthians, many of us struggle in this area. Most of us have goals for other areas of our lives (economic; educational; family; recreational), but it is relatively rare to meet Christians who can articulate clear spiritual goals. Some even protest that it is unspiritual to be goal-oriented in your walk with Christ, as though the Spirit-led life is completely spontaneous. This is an important area which we need to explore in depth.

But is this an isolated passage that can be written off as a neurotic fit by Paul? When we survey the Bible on this subject, we find an amazing amount of material. We can distill this material into the following theses:

1. God is goal-oriented. (Jn. 5:17; Eph. 1:10)
2. Goal-orientation is part of being made in God's image. (Gen 2:15)
3. Eternal life will include goal-oriented activity. (Lk. 19:17)
4. Jesus and other biblical models were spiritually goal-oriented. (Lk. 13:32; Jn. 17:4; 1 Cor. 9:26,27; Phil. 3:13,14; 2 Tim. 4:7,8)
5. God exhorts all Christians to be spiritually goal-oriented. (1 Cor. 9:24,25; 2 Pet. 1:5-8; 1 Pet. 3:15; Heb. 10:24,25)

Thus, all Christians should have clear spiritual goals, and these goals should be the most important goals in our lives! This is a non-optional component of a spiritually healthy life. You can see from many of these passages that there is a close connection between spiritual goal-orientation and motivation and fulfillment in your Christian life. This is a big reason why so many Christians are unmotivated in their walks. If you want your relationship with God to be motivating, it has to be making progress, accomplishing something.

But how do I do this? I plan to teach this Sunday on the topic of Christian Goal Setting. Come and be with us as we explore this timely topic.

May It Be

"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her (Luke 1:38).

Have you ever had a boss come to you and give you an assignment which had rules never before used? Not only were the rules different, he was asking you to agree to them not knowing the outcome or impact it would have on your life. That must have been the way Mary, the mother of Jesus felt.

God was about to do something so extraordinary that it required a face to face meeting with the subject, Mary, and his key angel, Gabriel. What God was about to do was so foreign that it needed detailed explanation.

Mary had been handpicked to give birth to the Christ-child. Can you imagine!? However, in order to do so she was going to be pregnant while yet unmarried, something totally taboo in her culture. In fact, women were stoned to death if found to be fornicators. So, when Mary heard the assignment and responded by saying, "May it be," this tells us what a courageous woman of faith she must have been.

She did not understand the implications of what she was about to do. However, she placed her total trust in God and knew that if God chose her for such an assignment, she could trust the outcome to Him. She would even have to trust the explanation to Joseph, who was not going to understand. In fact, when he discovered Mary was pregnant, he immediately considered divorce proceedings.

However, when God saw Joseph's response, He sent an angel to explain the situation through a dream. I am sure the time between her telling him and his dream must have been difficult to explain. She did not know God was going to solve the problem. This is another example of her faith and courage. I would imagine most women might have responded to the angel like this, "I won?t do it unless you tell my husband!"

Do you have an assignment from God that seems impossible on the front end? Is God calling you to trust Him for the outcome? Take a lesson from Mary and release the outcome to God.