March 5, 2025 • 22 mins
Lydia's Purple Dreams: A Tale of Faith and Business.
Who was Lydia, and why is she important to the story of early Christianity? Explore her journey from businesswoman to first European convert! What inspires you about her faith? 🎧
#Faith #inspirational #Hope #Life #PersonalityTraits #FromTheBible #TheColorPurple #Purple #PurpleDreams #Entrepreneuers #BusinessWomen #ChristianPodcasts #CheerUpPodcast #Cheer #CheriSwalwell #KaraRHunt
https://cheeruppodcast.buzzsprout.com
Would you like to support the Cheer UP! Podcast? You can do so by clicking here
Kara's website - click here.
Cheri's website- here.
Email - cheeruppodcast@gmail.com
Instagram - @kararhunt
Leave reviews on - Apple, Spotify, iHeart, Google Podcasts,
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hi and welcome to the Cheer Up Podcast.
And welcome to the Cheer UpPodcast.
I am your host, kara R Hunt,and with me, as always, is the
beautiful and sun-shiny SherrySwalwell.
(00:30):
How are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Sherry, I am doing great.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Can you believe that it's March already?
No, I don't even want to thinkabout it.
Each year it feels like I'mlike two months short.
I mean, I move a monthsomewhere.
You know it's like where didFebruary go, when did January go
?
But we hope everyone listeningis having a great and awesome
(00:59):
start to your new year.
We hope that your holidays werevery fun and refreshing and you
got to see people you don'tnormally see, perhaps, but and
hug and kiss all those you love,that you had a great time and
that your new year is startingoff awesome.
And yes, so to me March stillfeels like the beginning of the
(01:23):
new year.
Right, it's like the firstsemester of it, I guess I could
say.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Right, Sherry.
Yeah, I completely agree withyou.
When you break it off into likefour quarters, we're still in
the first quarter.
So this is good.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
This is good, it's awesome.
And this week our podcastepisode is going to be about
Lydia Lydia in the New Testament.
And for those of you who maynot be familiar with Lydia,
(01:56):
we're going to talk a little bitmore about her in this podcast
episode.
So again, thank you all forjoining us, thank you all for
tuning in.
Hello to Cheered Nation, thoseof you who tune in every week
and for those who are just nowtuning in, welcome, and we
appreciate you so much forjoining us on your journey to
(02:17):
joy.
And right now we're going totalk about Lydia, who was a
joyful person.
I don't know if she wasbeforehand, before something
happened, but you could tellthat she was afterwards, you
know.
So, just quickly, just a littlebit about Lydia, really quick.
(02:38):
She, on some of the notes Ihave gathered, she was a
prominent figure in the excuseme, I should say she is a
prominent figure because she'sstill in the book Lydia.
She's a prominent figure in theNew Testament and she's
mentioned in the book of Acts asa convert to Christianity and
supporter of the early church.
(03:00):
We can read all about Lydia inActs, chapter 16.
I think starting I have here 11, but I think it starts earlier
than that.
I almost want to say eight, butdon't quote me on that.
Maybe my notes from yesterdayis correct, but anyway, she was
a businesswoman.
(03:20):
The one thing that wasdifferent about Lydia women in
the New Testament is that shewas a businesswoman.
The one thing that wasdifferent about Lydia women in
the New Testament is that shewas a businesswoman and she was
from Thyatira, which is a cityin the Roman province of Asia
which is now modern-day Turkey.
She was a seller of purplecloth and that's important
because it was a luxurious andexpensive material in ancient
(03:42):
times.
She is described in the Book ofActs as a worshiper of God,
which according to some meansthat she was a Gentile who had
already embraced some aspects ofJudaism before her conversion
to Christianity.
She did not.
It does not really talk abouther heritage much as a matter of
(04:02):
fact.
I don't think it's mentioned atall.
So we have no knowledge of,maybe, who her parents were or
if she had any children.
So it does speak about herhousehold, but it doesn't give
any specifics regarding to that.
But Paul plays a significantrole in this and you'll notice,
(04:22):
as we're talking about figuresin the New Testament, that Paul
seems to be everywhere all thetime converting people and doing
a whole bunch of awesome stuff,but anyway, lydia and her
household were baptized afterhearing the apostle Paul preach
the gospel in Philippi and,following her conversion, lydia
and her household providedhospitality to Paul and his
(04:45):
companions.
It doesn't even go into Lydia'sdeath at all how she died, how
long she lived or what happenedto her family or anything like
that.
Again, the important thing isthat she was noted for being a
devoted follower of Jesus Christand a great supporter of the
early church.
(05:06):
And I want to get back to herbeing a businesswoman back then,
because being a businesswomanin New Testament was very, very
challenging.
It's not like it is today.
We have women who areentrepreneurs, solopreneurs,
ceos of companies, you know, andeverything like that, and run
their own businesses, big andsmall, and it has been a way, at
(05:28):
least in America, for quite awhile.
But in New Testament times thatwas, it was a rarity for
someone to do that and it waschallenging because they faced
significant social and legalbarriers legal barriers and it
limited their economic andprofessional opportunities.
(05:48):
So, for instance, in Greece, inRome, women were generally
expected to be subservient tomen and focus on their domestic
and familial responsibilities,like caring for your children,
managing the household,performing the religious duties
and doing all of that, butselling goods in a marketplace
(06:08):
or managing a small-scaleenterprise, they face
significant obstacles andlimitations.
Women were excluded from formalbusiness networks and
organizations.
It was difficult for them tohave anyone loan them money or
skills or anything to help themstart it.
They weren't allowed tonegotiate contracts and they
(06:31):
weren't allowed to evenestablish professional
relationships because most ofthe time that would have been
with men.
So there was various legalrestrictions that limited a lot
of them.
So her being a businesswomansays a lot about her character
and how she was able to do it,because sometimes, and
especially in Roman law, youcouldn't even do that unless you
had a male guardian who handledall the financial
(06:54):
responsibilities.
So it was very difficult.
It's not like it was these daysand what she did was she sold
purple cloth, which is highlyvalued and expensive fabric that
was used for a slew of purposes.
It was from curtains toclothing, to textiles and robes
and the color purple and it wasvery expensive and it was
(07:19):
derived from a type of sea snailfrom a type of sea snail.
So she was, she had.
There was a lot to this, so Idon't want it to be just like oh
, you know, she just had like alittle booth on the corner and
everything and she was justselling this purple cloth.
No, that purple cloth had to bemade First.
You had to get the purple coloror whatnot from the snail and
(07:40):
you had to do all of this.
And it was a very expensivefabric because and that's why so
many people went after it,because it was usually worn by
the wealthy and those like that.
So she probably had a verysuccessful business, but it took
a lot to go in there.
But the most important thingabout Lydia is that when you
(08:00):
read in Acts 16, verse 13, youfind out, well, you've got to
read a little bit before that.
So it's probably best whenyou're in Luke 16 to read the
first 12 chapters.
But and then you realize shewas the first convert Right on
European soil, by Paul and theteam that was the missionary
(08:22):
team that was with him.
She was the first convert andthen later, like we just talked
about, you know, not only wasshe baptized, but her entire
household was baptized.
And so here he is, you know,this woman and Paul and them
come to town and she hears themand he's speaking to her and
again, you can read about all ofthis in Luke chapter 16.
(08:43):
And she accepts you know whatthey're saying.
And she accepts Jesus Christ astheir Savior and she gets
baptized.
She's so excited about it,right, that she goes back, she
tells her whole household andwhatever they hear from her,
she's pretty much evangelizinghere.
Not only was she the firstconvert, but now she's
evangelizing, she's taking itback to her home and they're
(09:05):
like what Tell us more?
And next thing, you know, thenthey're baptized.
Now, again, it's only a coupleof paragraphs adapted to this,
excuse me, that talks aboutLydia there.
But this actually, I think,happened over.
As I look into some of mycommentaries.
It didn't all happen at once.
This seems like it happenedover a couple of days.
(09:26):
And then you get to that partof Luke chapter two excuse me,
luke chapter six where all thethings happened to Paul and
everything else.
But then when you get down, youknow else.
But then when you get down, youknow, to the end of Luke
chapter 16, when Paul and Silasare, you know, are brought out
(09:51):
of prison, you know, and thingslike that, they entered into the
house of Lydia.
So a whole bunch of stuffhappens between when they meet.
When she meets Paul, she'sministered to, she accepts what
he has to say, she's baptized.
Then she goes back to herfamily and then they're baptized
, and her whole household.
Then a whole bunch of stuffhappens to Paul.
I'm not going to read throughit, but a whole bunch of stuff
(10:12):
happens to him.
But after all of that is saidand done, so this could have
been a couple of weeks.
Verse 40 says in 16, chapter 16,and they went out of the prison
and entered into the house ofLydia.
So they knew where to go backto because she was such a great
person and she had awesomehospitality.
(10:32):
They knew that they would bewelcome.
And, by the way, by the timebecause this is the last verse
in Luke 16, verse 40, by thetime they go back to her house,
because they have been throughso much in the middle of Luke,
chapter 16, they are worse forthe wear.
They have been beaten, theyhave been downtrodden, they have
(10:53):
been put in prison, they havebeen threatened, I mean, and so
they're worse for wear.
And where do they go?
They go to Lydia and herhousehold, where they were
comforted and encouraged beforethey were to depart, before they
departed, and these were newconverts who did that to them.
(11:13):
And so that's some of theamazing things about Lydia.
And what I really just want tofocus on there is I know a lot
of people may be, yeah, but I'mnew to Christianity and I just
don't know what I can do.
I don't know the Bible a lot.
I don't know what I should say,what I shouldn't say.
(11:34):
It doesn't matter.
Lydia and her whole householdwere new converts.
Lydia was the first one inEuropean territory to be the
first convert.
When they went there Again,read the earlier parts of
chapter 16.
But in her whole household.
Now, paul, like I said, had beenthrough a whole bunch, but who
(11:57):
did he go back to?
He didn't go to some of theconverts and stuff that he knew
were older and stronger and youknow, in a faith, he went back
to Lydia and her family.
So never think that you don'thave a purpose because you're
new to Jesus Christ.
You're new to your relationshipthere or anything else.
If you know how to comfortsomeone, be a comforter.
If you know how to encouragesomeone, be an encourager.
(12:19):
If you know how to bandagesomeone's wounds physical wounds
, because Paul and them werepretty messed up around this
time because they had beenthrough a lot Then you know,
bandage wounds, physically andor emotionally, you can do that
through the strength of the HolySpirit that is now, that is
within you no-transcript thatGod.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
He just shows through his examples in the Bible of
how much he cares for everysingle person and how everybody
is equal in his eyes.
We may have barriers when itcomes to government.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
We may have barriers when it comes to culture, we may
have barriers when it comes toculture.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
We may have barriers when it comes to financial or
economic success, but there areno barriers when it comes to God
.
He uses some.
In some cases, you need to havemoney in order to be able to be
used greatly, because you needto have that resource so God can
use business people really,really well.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
But then in other cases.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
If God wants to use somebody else who maybe has a
financial barrier, he canovercome that with.
I think of Elijah and the widowwith the oil and the flowers
and how she just had a littlebit, but God let that stretch
for as long as she needed it toand as long as he needed it to.
So, um, but I, I truly love howthis story shows us that every
(14:14):
single person, however he wantsto, and in his time, we just
have to be willing.
So Lydia was a great businessperson.
She knew business, she thrivedon business, she was good at
business, and so God used that.
So if you, like Kara said, ifyou're good at tending wounds,
then tend houses for the best ofthem, If you're good at
(14:36):
whatever it is.
God is no respecter of personsand I just I love that.
I love how that just comes outso effortlessly.
But I also love how she was anew convert and, like Kara said,
(14:57):
it doesn't matter how longyou've been in the faith, it's
the genuineness and it's yourheart that matters.
So the fact that she, that Paul,came to her when she wasn't as
learned or as experiencednecessarily as some of the
others, sometimes those are thebest people because they're the
most genuine.
(15:17):
So just work on your heartbecause they're the most genuine
.
So just work on your heart,just make sure that you, every
morning, wake up and examineyour heart and say God, I want
to be a blessing for you and I,I want to do what you want me to
do, so make me available.
Or I should say I am available,do with me what you want done
and then just watch and see whatGod will do.
(15:39):
But yeah, that's, that's aboutall I wanted to add, because you
, you taught me so much aboutLydia.
Like I knew about the purplecloth and stuff, but I didn't
know all of those little details.
So thank you.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Yeah, and, and there's so much more to that
purple cloth was used for and,um, the, the, the, the
difficulty in getting it.
And not to mention again, likeyou said, she was a business
woman, but it wasn't easy forher to become that, right, it
just it just wasn't.
And I'm like now, if youmentioned to someone and you
have a girlfriend came to youand they're like, sure, I'm
(16:12):
thinking about starting abusiness, and you're like, okay,
well, what, what man is goingto represent you in this?
They look at you like you werenuts, right?
They're like what, yeah, well,you're going to need a man to do
your contracts, you're going toneed a man to handle all of
your financial things andeverything else.
And that's the law, it's justthe way it is.
I mean.
So there are lots of obstaclesthat she had to overcome for
(16:33):
that, but she was able to do itand I just didn't want that part
to get lost of how difficult itwould have been for her to be a
businesswoman.
At that time, however, youcould tell she was successful
because it wasn't cheap.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Right To make.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
That cloth was expensive and people paid who
did it?
Because it was run by a lot ofroyal people.
She was blessed by her hardwork and her perseverance, but
again, one of the excuse me, notone of the first the first
convert and Paul went and wentback to her and her family,
(17:08):
right bleeding and bruised andupset and everything after being
prisoned.
He went there and theycomforted him and it says that
in, you know, verse 40,depending what translation you
read, they're like theycomforted them, they encouraged
them, they inspired them, youknow, and everything else.
And sometimes you're like well,paul was seasoned, right, like
(17:30):
why would he need encouragementand inspiration?
Well, if you've been throughwhat he just went through, it
doesn't hurt to have thatencouragement and that inspiring
.
And if you're that type ofperson and you see someone
hurting, sometimes it just takesa kind words.
Do not let your lack of years ofexperience in a Christian faith
(17:51):
stop you, because it doesn't.
God has used them in mighty,mighty ways and it was so mighty
and it's so blessed Paul, thatLuke edited in his telling of
the book of Acts.
And Luke was a physician and heedited there at the beginning
(18:13):
of Paul difficult journey therein the book of Acts and at the
end he talks about Lydia and heends it with Lydia before you
know that difficult situationthat he had went into and
everything else, and so he sawit as important to put in there.
(18:34):
So never think that you're notquote unquote seasoned enough,
you haven't walked the faithlong enough, you don't know God
good enough.
Use the skills that God hasgiven you.
You'd be surprised at how muchcomfort and encouragement it
could give to someone who's alsonew to the faith or who has
been walking the journey for avery long time.
And just two or three words anda little bandaging and a little
(18:57):
encouragement before they haveto leave can go a very, very
long way.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Absolutely, and that fits so well with the verse of
the podcast, which is John 16,33.
These things I have spoken toyou, that in me you may have
peace.
In this world you will havetribulation, but be of good
cheer.
I have overcome the world.
Well, not only does Jesus do ithimself with us, but he uses us
(19:25):
as his hands and feet to comfort, to encourage and to be there
to uplift for other people, andso I think that that's something
that all of us can do, whetherit's an encouraging word,
whether it's an encouraging text.
It doesn't take too long totext somebody and just say, hey,
I'm thinking about you, how areyou doing?
(19:46):
Or I'm praying for you.
I know that you had that testtoday, or I know you had, you
know, whatever, whatever,whatever.
So I think that that's what Iwant to encourage us with this
week is how can we keepourselves mindful of being the
hands and feet of Jesus to thosearound us and maybe ask him how
(20:11):
we can do it in a way thatwe're not used to doing or in a
way that's not comfortable orfamiliar for us by
helping us to step out of ourcomfort zone and do it in a
different way.
Let God stretch us a little bitand that will look different
for all of us, but it's exciting.
So that's kind of what I wantto encourage people with this
(20:33):
morning or today.
I should say Thank you, kara,for telling us all about Lydia
because, like I said, I knewsome about her, but I feel like
I know her that much more andI'm excited to know that she was
, her and her family were thevery first converts of Paul in
that area.
(20:53):
So that's really exciting.
Like now I want to meet her upin heaven too.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Like not before but now.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
I want to meet her even more.
So next week we're going to betalking about the woman with the
issue of blood, and if youdon't know that story, then
definitely come back and staytuned.
And if you do know that story,then come on back and stay tuned
.
And if you do know that story,then, um, come on, listen to it,
and then you can um start adiscussion in the um Facebook
(21:24):
group.
Uh, and we can continue it on.
Or you can email us atcheeruppodcasts at gmailcom.
If you want to talk to us aboutLydia, or if you want to talk
about what we talk about nextweek, head over to carrie's
website, carrahuntcom, and youwill see all of her different
books.
They are available in paperback, ebook and audiobook.
(21:47):
She also has a lot of othergreat things on her website, so
I encourage you to browse aroundthere.
You can head over to my website, sherryslawwellcom, and you can
look at the different booksthat I have on there fiction and
nonfiction, as well as some ofthe other things that we that I
offer other services.
So we are so grateful thatyou're here every single week.
(22:11):
We love our listeners and welove communicating with you and
sharing with you what God layson our heart, and so next week
we're going to be talking aboutthe woman with the issue of
blood.
Until then, enjoy your day,enjoy the beginning of March,
and join us next week foranother exciting episode of the
(22:31):
cheer up podcast.
Hi and welcome to the Cheer Up Podcast.
And welcome to the Cheer UpPodcast.
I am your host, kara R Hunt,and with me, as always, is the
beautiful and sun-shiny SherrySwalwell.
(00:30):
How are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Sherry, I am doing great.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Can you believe that it's March already?
No, I don't even want to thinkabout it.
Each year it feels like I'mlike two months short.
I mean, I move a monthsomewhere.
You know it's like where didFebruary go, when did January go
?
But we hope everyone listeningis having a great and awesome
(00:59):
start to your new year.
We hope that your holidays werevery fun and refreshing and you
got to see people you don'tnormally see, perhaps, but and
hug and kiss all those you love,that you had a great time and
that your new year is startingoff awesome.
And yes, so to me March stillfeels like the beginning of the
(01:23):
new year.
Right, it's like the firstsemester of it, I guess I could
say.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Right, Sherry.
Yeah, I completely agree withyou.
When you break it off into likefour quarters, we're still in
the first quarter.
So this is good.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
This is good, it's awesome.
And this week our podcastepisode is going to be about
Lydia Lydia in the New Testament.
And for those of you who maynot be familiar with Lydia,
(01:56):
we're going to talk a little bitmore about her in this podcast
episode.
So again, thank you all forjoining us, thank you all for
tuning in.
Hello to Cheered Nation, thoseof you who tune in every week
and for those who are just nowtuning in, welcome, and we
appreciate you so much forjoining us on your journey to
(02:17):
joy.
And right now we're going totalk about Lydia, who was a
joyful person.
I don't know if she wasbeforehand, before something
happened, but you could tellthat she was afterwards, you
know.
So, just quickly, just a littlebit about Lydia, really quick.
(02:38):
She, on some of the notes Ihave gathered, she was a
prominent figure in the excuseme, I should say she is a
prominent figure because she'sstill in the book Lydia.
She's a prominent figure in theNew Testament and she's
mentioned in the book of Acts asa convert to Christianity and
supporter of the early church.
(03:00):
We can read all about Lydia inActs, chapter 16.
I think starting I have here 11, but I think it starts earlier
than that.
I almost want to say eight, butdon't quote me on that.
Maybe my notes from yesterdayis correct, but anyway, she was
a businesswoman.
(03:20):
The one thing that wasdifferent about Lydia women in
the New Testament is that shewas a businesswoman.
The one thing that wasdifferent about Lydia women in
the New Testament is that shewas a businesswoman and she was
from Thyatira, which is a cityin the Roman province of Asia
which is now modern-day Turkey.
She was a seller of purplecloth and that's important
because it was a luxurious andexpensive material in ancient
(03:42):
times.
She is described in the Book ofActs as a worshiper of God,
which according to some meansthat she was a Gentile who had
already embraced some aspects ofJudaism before her conversion
to Christianity.
She did not.
It does not really talk abouther heritage much as a matter of
(04:02):
fact.
I don't think it's mentioned atall.
So we have no knowledge of,maybe, who her parents were or
if she had any children.
So it does speak about herhousehold, but it doesn't give
any specifics regarding to that.
But Paul plays a significantrole in this and you'll notice,
(04:22):
as we're talking about figuresin the New Testament, that Paul
seems to be everywhere all thetime converting people and doing
a whole bunch of awesome stuff,but anyway, lydia and her
household were baptized afterhearing the apostle Paul preach
the gospel in Philippi and,following her conversion, lydia
and her household providedhospitality to Paul and his
(04:45):
companions.
It doesn't even go into Lydia'sdeath at all how she died, how
long she lived or what happenedto her family or anything like
that.
Again, the important thing isthat she was noted for being a
devoted follower of Jesus Christand a great supporter of the
early church.
(05:06):
And I want to get back to herbeing a businesswoman back then,
because being a businesswomanin New Testament was very, very
challenging.
It's not like it is today.
We have women who areentrepreneurs, solopreneurs,
ceos of companies, you know, andeverything like that, and run
their own businesses, big andsmall, and it has been a way, at
(05:28):
least in America, for quite awhile.
But in New Testament times thatwas, it was a rarity for
someone to do that and it waschallenging because they faced
significant social and legalbarriers legal barriers and it
limited their economic andprofessional opportunities.
(05:48):
So, for instance, in Greece, inRome, women were generally
expected to be subservient tomen and focus on their domestic
and familial responsibilities,like caring for your children,
managing the household,performing the religious duties
and doing all of that, butselling goods in a marketplace
(06:08):
or managing a small-scaleenterprise, they face
significant obstacles andlimitations.
Women were excluded from formalbusiness networks and
organizations.
It was difficult for them tohave anyone loan them money or
skills or anything to help themstart it.
They weren't allowed tonegotiate contracts and they
(06:31):
weren't allowed to evenestablish professional
relationships because most ofthe time that would have been
with men.
So there was various legalrestrictions that limited a lot
of them.
So her being a businesswomansays a lot about her character
and how she was able to do it,because sometimes, and
especially in Roman law, youcouldn't even do that unless you
had a male guardian who handledall the financial
(06:54):
responsibilities.
So it was very difficult.
It's not like it was these daysand what she did was she sold
purple cloth, which is highlyvalued and expensive fabric that
was used for a slew of purposes.
It was from curtains toclothing, to textiles and robes
and the color purple and it wasvery expensive and it was
(07:19):
derived from a type of sea snailfrom a type of sea snail.
So she was, she had.
There was a lot to this, so Idon't want it to be just like oh
, you know, she just had like alittle booth on the corner and
everything and she was justselling this purple cloth.
No, that purple cloth had to bemade First.
You had to get the purple coloror whatnot from the snail and
(07:40):
you had to do all of this.
And it was a very expensivefabric because and that's why so
many people went after it,because it was usually worn by
the wealthy and those like that.
So she probably had a verysuccessful business, but it took
a lot to go in there.
But the most important thingabout Lydia is that when you
(08:00):
read in Acts 16, verse 13, youfind out, well, you've got to
read a little bit before that.
So it's probably best whenyou're in Luke 16 to read the
first 12 chapters.
But and then you realize shewas the first convert Right on
European soil, by Paul and theteam that was the missionary
(08:22):
team that was with him.
She was the first convert andthen later, like we just talked
about, you know, not only wasshe baptized, but her entire
household was baptized.
And so here he is, you know,this woman and Paul and them
come to town and she hears themand he's speaking to her and
again, you can read about all ofthis in Luke chapter 16.
(08:43):
And she accepts you know whatthey're saying.
And she accepts Jesus Christ astheir Savior and she gets
baptized.
She's so excited about it,right, that she goes back, she
tells her whole household andwhatever they hear from her,
she's pretty much evangelizinghere.
Not only was she the firstconvert, but now she's
evangelizing, she's taking itback to her home and they're
(09:05):
like what Tell us more?
And next thing, you know, thenthey're baptized.
Now, again, it's only a coupleof paragraphs adapted to this,
excuse me, that talks aboutLydia there.
But this actually, I think,happened over.
As I look into some of mycommentaries.
It didn't all happen at once.
This seems like it happenedover a couple of days.
(09:26):
And then you get to that partof Luke chapter two excuse me,
luke chapter six where all thethings happened to Paul and
everything else.
But then when you get down, youknow else.
But then when you get down, youknow, to the end of Luke
chapter 16, when Paul and Silasare, you know, are brought out
(09:51):
of prison, you know, and thingslike that, they entered into the
house of Lydia.
So a whole bunch of stuffhappens between when they meet.
When she meets Paul, she'sministered to, she accepts what
he has to say, she's baptized.
Then she goes back to herfamily and then they're baptized
, and her whole household.
Then a whole bunch of stuffhappens to Paul.
I'm not going to read throughit, but a whole bunch of stuff
(10:12):
happens to him.
But after all of that is saidand done, so this could have
been a couple of weeks.
Verse 40 says in 16, chapter 16,and they went out of the prison
and entered into the house ofLydia.
So they knew where to go backto because she was such a great
person and she had awesomehospitality.
(10:32):
They knew that they would bewelcome.
And, by the way, by the timebecause this is the last verse
in Luke 16, verse 40, by thetime they go back to her house,
because they have been throughso much in the middle of Luke,
chapter 16, they are worse forthe wear.
They have been beaten, theyhave been downtrodden, they have
(10:53):
been put in prison, they havebeen threatened, I mean, and so
they're worse for wear.
And where do they go?
They go to Lydia and herhousehold, where they were
comforted and encouraged beforethey were to depart, before they
departed, and these were newconverts who did that to them.
(11:13):
And so that's some of theamazing things about Lydia.
And what I really just want tofocus on there is I know a lot
of people may be, yeah, but I'mnew to Christianity and I just
don't know what I can do.
I don't know the Bible a lot.
I don't know what I should say,what I shouldn't say.
(11:34):
It doesn't matter.
Lydia and her whole householdwere new converts.
Lydia was the first one inEuropean territory to be the
first convert.
When they went there Again,read the earlier parts of
chapter 16.
But in her whole household.
Now, paul, like I said, had beenthrough a whole bunch, but who
(11:57):
did he go back to?
He didn't go to some of theconverts and stuff that he knew
were older and stronger and youknow, in a faith, he went back
to Lydia and her family.
So never think that you don'thave a purpose because you're
new to Jesus Christ.
You're new to your relationshipthere or anything else.
If you know how to comfortsomeone, be a comforter.
If you know how to encouragesomeone, be an encourager.
(12:19):
If you know how to bandagesomeone's wounds physical wounds
, because Paul and them werepretty messed up around this
time because they had beenthrough a lot Then you know,
bandage wounds, physically andor emotionally, you can do that
through the strength of the HolySpirit that is now, that is
within you no-transcript thatGod.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
He just shows through his examples in the Bible of
how much he cares for everysingle person and how everybody
is equal in his eyes.
We may have barriers when itcomes to government.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
We may have barriers when it comes to culture, we may
have barriers when it comes toculture.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
We may have barriers when it comes to financial or
economic success, but there areno barriers when it comes to God
.
He uses some.
In some cases, you need to havemoney in order to be able to be
used greatly, because you needto have that resource so God can
use business people really,really well.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
But then in other cases.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
If God wants to use somebody else who maybe has a
financial barrier, he canovercome that with.
I think of Elijah and the widowwith the oil and the flowers
and how she just had a littlebit, but God let that stretch
for as long as she needed it toand as long as he needed it to.
So, um, but I, I truly love howthis story shows us that every
(14:14):
single person, however he wantsto, and in his time, we just
have to be willing.
So Lydia was a great businessperson.
She knew business, she thrivedon business, she was good at
business, and so God used that.
So if you, like Kara said, ifyou're good at tending wounds,
then tend houses for the best ofthem, If you're good at
(14:36):
whatever it is.
God is no respecter of personsand I just I love that.
I love how that just comes outso effortlessly.
But I also love how she was anew convert and, like Kara said,
(14:57):
it doesn't matter how longyou've been in the faith, it's
the genuineness and it's yourheart that matters.
So the fact that she, that Paul,came to her when she wasn't as
learned or as experiencednecessarily as some of the
others, sometimes those are thebest people because they're the
most genuine.
(15:17):
So just work on your heartbecause they're the most genuine
.
So just work on your heart,just make sure that you, every
morning, wake up and examineyour heart and say God, I want
to be a blessing for you and I,I want to do what you want me to
do, so make me available.
Or I should say I am available,do with me what you want done
and then just watch and see whatGod will do.
(15:39):
But yeah, that's, that's aboutall I wanted to add, because you
, you taught me so much aboutLydia.
Like I knew about the purplecloth and stuff, but I didn't
know all of those little details.
So thank you.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Yeah, and, and there's so much more to that
purple cloth was used for and,um, the, the, the, the
difficulty in getting it.
And not to mention again, likeyou said, she was a business
woman, but it wasn't easy forher to become that, right, it
just it just wasn't.
And I'm like now, if youmentioned to someone and you
have a girlfriend came to youand they're like, sure, I'm
(16:12):
thinking about starting abusiness, and you're like, okay,
well, what, what man is goingto represent you in this?
They look at you like you werenuts, right?
They're like what, yeah, well,you're going to need a man to do
your contracts, you're going toneed a man to handle all of
your financial things andeverything else.
And that's the law, it's justthe way it is.
I mean.
So there are lots of obstaclesthat she had to overcome for
(16:33):
that, but she was able to do itand I just didn't want that part
to get lost of how difficult itwould have been for her to be a
businesswoman.
At that time, however, youcould tell she was successful
because it wasn't cheap.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Right To make.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
That cloth was expensive and people paid who
did it?
Because it was run by a lot ofroyal people.
She was blessed by her hardwork and her perseverance, but
again, one of the excuse me, notone of the first the first
convert and Paul went and wentback to her and her family,
(17:08):
right bleeding and bruised andupset and everything after being
prisoned.
He went there and theycomforted him and it says that
in, you know, verse 40,depending what translation you
read, they're like theycomforted them, they encouraged
them, they inspired them, youknow, and everything else.
And sometimes you're like well,paul was seasoned, right, like
(17:30):
why would he need encouragementand inspiration?
Well, if you've been throughwhat he just went through, it
doesn't hurt to have thatencouragement and that inspiring
.
And if you're that type ofperson and you see someone
hurting, sometimes it just takesa kind words.
Do not let your lack of years ofexperience in a Christian faith
(17:51):
stop you, because it doesn't.
God has used them in mighty,mighty ways and it was so mighty
and it's so blessed Paul, thatLuke edited in his telling of
the book of Acts.
And Luke was a physician and heedited there at the beginning
(18:13):
of Paul difficult journey therein the book of Acts and at the
end he talks about Lydia and heends it with Lydia before you
know that difficult situationthat he had went into and
everything else, and so he sawit as important to put in there.
(18:34):
So never think that you're notquote unquote seasoned enough,
you haven't walked the faithlong enough, you don't know God
good enough.
Use the skills that God hasgiven you.
You'd be surprised at how muchcomfort and encouragement it
could give to someone who's alsonew to the faith or who has
been walking the journey for avery long time.
And just two or three words anda little bandaging and a little
(18:57):
encouragement before they haveto leave can go a very, very
long way.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Absolutely, and that fits so well with the verse of
the podcast, which is John 16,33.
These things I have spoken toyou, that in me you may have
peace.
In this world you will havetribulation, but be of good
cheer.
I have overcome the world.
Well, not only does Jesus do ithimself with us, but he uses us
(19:25):
as his hands and feet to comfort, to encourage and to be there
to uplift for other people, andso I think that that's something
that all of us can do, whetherit's an encouraging word,
whether it's an encouraging text.
It doesn't take too long totext somebody and just say, hey,
I'm thinking about you, how areyou doing?
(19:46):
Or I'm praying for you.
I know that you had that testtoday, or I know you had, you
know, whatever, whatever,whatever.
So I think that that's what Iwant to encourage us with this
week is how can we keepourselves mindful of being the
hands and feet of Jesus to thosearound us and maybe ask him how
(20:11):
we can do it in a way thatwe're not used to doing or in a
way that's not comfortable orfamiliar for us by
helping us to step out of ourcomfort zone and do it in a
different way.
Let God stretch us a little bitand that will look different
for all of us, but it's exciting.
So that's kind of what I wantto encourage people with this
(20:33):
morning or today.
I should say Thank you, kara,for telling us all about Lydia
because, like I said, I knewsome about her, but I feel like
I know her that much more andI'm excited to know that she was
, her and her family were thevery first converts of Paul in
that area.
(20:53):
So that's really exciting.
Like now I want to meet her upin heaven too.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Like not before but now.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
I want to meet her even more.
So next week we're going to betalking about the woman with the
issue of blood, and if youdon't know that story, then
definitely come back and staytuned.
And if you do know that story,then come on back and stay tuned
.
And if you do know that story,then, um, come on, listen to it,
and then you can um start adiscussion in the um Facebook
(21:24):
group.
Uh, and we can continue it on.
Or you can email us atcheeruppodcasts at gmailcom.
If you want to talk to us aboutLydia, or if you want to talk
about what we talk about nextweek, head over to carrie's
website, carrahuntcom, and youwill see all of her different
books.
They are available in paperback, ebook and audiobook.
(21:47):
She also has a lot of othergreat things on her website, so
I encourage you to browse aroundthere.
You can head over to my website, sherryslawwellcom, and you can
look at the different booksthat I have on there fiction and
nonfiction, as well as some ofthe other things that we that I
offer other services.
So we are so grateful thatyou're here every single week.
(22:11):
We love our listeners and welove communicating with you and
sharing with you what God layson our heart, and so next week
we're going to be talking aboutthe woman with the issue of
blood.
Until then, enjoy your day,enjoy the beginning of March,
and join us next week foranother exciting episode of the
(22:31):
cheer up podcast.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!