PrayerBits for Thursday

PrayerBits

A bite sized devotional program
produced by the West Side Presbyterian Church

Thursday

Scripture lesson: Acts 16:9-15 Shocking!

Time to Reflect: One of the oddities of the Early Christian Church was that it accepted women as equals and they were allowed to be influential and in leadership position. This was unusual for the Greek and Hebrew cultures and strongly opposed by the Roman culture. When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman government, women were stripped of power and influence.

Moving Through the Day: Since Christianity was strongly egalitarian in its earliest days, we need to always be reviewing who is being left out or restricted by our churches. Pray about this.

Scripture:  

9During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." 10After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

Lydia's Conversion in Philippi

 11From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day on to Neapolis. 12From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.

 13On 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. 14One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. 15When 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.