In Acts 16: 9-15, Lydia invites Paul and his companions to stay at her home. Now here is a place that generations of women know intimately. The home is where we establish families and nurture children. The home is the place of hospitality and fellowship.
Is the home also a place where we provide rest for the weary, clothes for the naked, and food for the hungry? All of the gatherings in the early church took place in homes. Though Paul speaks to Lydia, the Lord opens her heart. The Lord is the subject of the action, calling both the one who is speaking and the one who is listening. Paul became God’s instrument of proclamation.
This message is adapted from “Of Many Generations: Mary, Elizabeth, and Lydia,” the July/August 2014 Gather magazine Bible study by Diane Jacobson. Today we remember Julian of Norwich, renewer of the church, who died around 1416.
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