Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

1 Sam. 18:1,3  "As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. . . . Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul."
 
            Jonathan and David became BFFs from the moment they met.  This love they shared is another example of the type of love Jesus commands in John 13:34:  a love through service, shown by thinking of the other first.  While David needs no introduction, perhaps a brief one for Jonathan is a good idea.
            Jonathan was the son of King Saul, and the heir presumptive (1 Sam. 20:31).  He was a brave warrior, defeating a garrison of Philistines nearly single-handedly. (1 Sam. 14:1-15)  He was a better leader than the king, whose order that no one eat until his enemies were destroyed, resulted in a weakened army that failed to rout the Philistines.  Jonathan recognized the problem immediately. (1 Sam. 14:24-30)  More importantly for a potential leader of God's people, Jonathan had a strong faith in Jehovah.  1 Sam. 14:6  "Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor, 'Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the LORD will work for us, for nothing can hinder the LORD from saving by many or by few.'”  That's easy to say, but harder to put into practice when it means charging trained, armed soldiers.  Jonathan set up a sign, and when God indicated that He had given victory, Jonathan climbed a nearly vertical rock face, jumped into a garrison of armed men, and smote God's foes. (1 Sam. 14: 9-13) Now that is faith!  So, as a man of faith who was a brave warrior and natural leader, Jonathan's position as crown prince seemed secure.
            There was only one problem:  because of Saul's repeated sins (1 Sam. 13:8-14; 15:22-23) God had decided to remove the family of Saul from the throne.  David had been anointed for kingship (chapter 16) and had won a position in the king's court (1 Sam. 17).  Even though David's anointing had been in secret, his favor before God was soon evident.  One might think that Jonathan would become jealous.  He did not, but his father did:
 
1 Sam. 18:6-9  "As they were coming home, when David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments.  And the women sang to one another as they celebrated, “Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands.”  And Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands, and what more can he have but the kingdom?”  And Saul eyed David from that day on."
 
In fact, the remainder of 1 Samuel might be summed up as Saul trying to kill David, yet Jonathan remains loyal to his friend by advocating for David (1 Sam. 19:1-7), covering for David (20:5-8,28-29) and warning David (20:35-42). 
            How often have we read novels or seen movies in which two close friends enter politics or business and soon become rivals because the desire for position, power, and wealth over-rode the love they had for each other?  It is nearly trite.  Jonathan's love is revolutionary  because that love over-rode self-interest.  Jonathan's love for David outweighed his desire to become king, his desire to extend his father's dynasty, and his pride of person. 
            Seeing Jonathan's example, how dare we fight over issues which have nothing to do with scriptural concerns and everything to do with personal egos?  The love which Jesus commands in John 13, which Paul teaches in Phil. 2, and which Jonathan demonstrates should rule our hearts.  We should be looking out for the needs of others, rather than our own needs.  We should be devoted to service. 
 
Eph. 5:21 "submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ."
 
Lucas Ward

So many Marys in the Bible.  If you were not aware, Mary in the New Testament is the Aramaic equivalent of Miriam in the Old.  That might explain why we see the name so often, not only in the gospels, but at least once in the epistles, too (Rom 16:6).  Mary Magdalene, Mary the wife of Cleopas (and mother of James the Less and Joses), and even Jesus' mother herself, were all Galilean women.  (Luke 8 along with a few cross references bear that out.)   Everyone knows Mary of Bethany, who lived a couple miles outside of Jerusalem.  But, though I am sure there were many in the general population, only one Mary who is mentioned in the Bible lived in Jerusalem.  She is John Mark's mother, and a relative of Barnabas, by marriage if not by blood (Col 4:10).
            When [Peter, who had just been released from prison by an angel] realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying (Acts 12:12).
            Unlike many of the women we have been studying, Mary seems to have been well off.  Somehow she is related to Barnabas who we know was wealthy enough to sell some property and donate the proceeds to help feed and house the needy of the newly formed church (Acts 4:36,37).  Mary in turn had a home large enough for many in the church to meet in to pray for Peter after James had been martyred.  The church was no longer 10,000 men strong because it had scattered in Acts 8, but it was undoubtedly still a good sized congregation of God's people.  Her home also seemed to be a short walk from the prison and easy to find, even in the middle of the night.
            The church was not just praying for Peter, I am sure.  If he and James could be swept off the streets at Herod's behest and killed without remorse, any of them could.  They did not even answer the door.  They sent poor little Rhoda to answer a door that seems to have been locked.  After all, wouldn't that seem more normal, for the maid to answer the door?  Perhaps she could even turn away whoever it was without suspicion.  But I am also sure that a group that large could not have assembled without the neighbors knowing something was going on.  What if one of them turned them in?  In fact, that class of people might have been the most likely to have turned them in—Sadducees and priests were the wealthiest class.
            But Mary opens her doors to her brothers and sisters so they will have somewhere relatively private to commune and pray during a terrifying crisis.  Would any of us do that?  Would we have allowed a line of parked cars up and down the street that practically screams, "Here we are!  Come and get us!"  The more I read about these people, the more inadequate I feel.  We need to learn these lessons now, folks.  The world out there is rapidly becoming hostile to Christianity.  We are now the bad guys.  No matter how many good deeds we may do, we will still be turned in, just as some of the people who survived the plague in the second century because of the care of their Christian neighbors turned them in.  But a few did convert.  And that can always be our hope and motivation.
            And that is what the Lord expects of us.  We have had it too easy for too long.  It's time to get tough, to realize what we may soon be up against and to prepare ourselves, and our children!  We will need a Mary, and a Lydia, and a Priscilla, and a Dorcas, and people like those other early Christians who gave it all for the Lord.  Let's hope we are tough enough to do it.
 
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go (Josh 1:9).
 
Dene Ward

Now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which, translated, means Dorcas. She was full of good works and acts of charity (Acts 9:36).
            Joppa was the main seaport of ancient Israel, the place from which Jonah fled the Lord when he refused to preach to Nineveh.  It is now called Jaffa.  A disciple named Dorcas lived there.  Notice, she is called a "disciple," not a "woman."  Perhaps Luke is stressing the truth of Gal 3:28: There is now neither Jew nor Greek…slave nor free…male nor female for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  And to cement the notion, notice later in the text that two men went after Peter when she died.  Two men thought this woman was important enough to try to persuade that great apostle to come to their aid.  I am not sure that would have happened in the Old Testament or anywhere else in the Greek or Roman world.
            We know very little about her.  Some assume she was a widow since no husband is mentioned.  We do know that it is the widows who showed Peter all the clothes Dorcas had made for them.  Since our social lives tend to revolve around those with like circumstances, widows and other singles are often left out of the couples group and must resort to gathering with their own kind, but none of this is definitive.
            The real point is this woman's service to others.  Luke tells us she was "full of good works" making her the epitome of verses like, …women should adorn themselves…with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works, 1 Tim 2:9,10.  Do we really have any doubt at all that she was a godly woman?
            Many might wonder why Peter would bother to raise from the dead someone so ordinary, a disciple to be sure, but one who was not famous, who did not travel around preaching, who did not, it seems, even keep preachers in her home.  After all, Stephen, the deacon and great speaker had been killed not many years before.  Not long after this, James, Jesus' own cousin and one of the Twelve, even one of that special cohort of three who often accompanied the Lord, would be killed.  But who was raised from the dead?  A woman who was "full of good works."  A woman who simply helped the poor.  If you are familiar with the prophets, with God's special concern over the injustice among his people perpetuated by the rich against the poor, this should not be such a surprise.  Maybe we need to go back and read those books again before we dare to make judgments about exactly who is and is not the most important disciple among us.
            God thought the church needed Dorcas, so He sent her back at Peter's call.  Would anyone think the same about me?
 
The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people (Titus 3:8).                                                                           
 
Dene Ward

I know I promised you lessons about some barely mentioned women in the New Testament, but I just cannot leave Apollos out of the mix, especially since his life was at least momentarily entwined with our last lesson on Priscilla.
            A certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by race, an eloquent man…mighty in the Scriptures, Acts 18:24.  Alexandria was a city in Egypt on the shore of the southern Mediterranean, known for its schools and its libraries.  It was the intellectual and cultural center of ancient times.  If you were Alexandrian, you were probably very well educated; it was like saying someone has a degree from Harvard.  More Jews lived in Alexandria than anywhere else in the world.  The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, was translated there.  Besides being well-educated, Apollos was an orator and a good one at that.  Oratory was one of the things wealthy young Greeks studied and was considered a fine art.  People went to hear speakers the same way we go to concerts or plays.  It was entertainment and the good orators had a following.  That means that Apollos might even have been a celebrity of sorts in the Greek world.
            So now we have a well-educated man, knowledgeable in the Scriptures, and something of a celebrity, who is approached by a couple of blue collar tradesmen, and one of them a woman, and told he does not know "the way of God" as accurately as he thinks he does.  What does he do?  He listens to them.  With an open mind.  And when he sees the truth of the matter, he changes.  Can you imagine that happening today?  Any celebrity nowadays would have a battery of bodyguards to keep ordinary people away, and anyone with that much education would simply sneer at someone with only the equivalent of a high school diploma.
            Unfortunately, listening carefully to another viewpoint doesn't even happen in the church as often as it should.  Too many times a man can't even be shouted down because he won't stop long enough to really hear and carefully and honestly consider what he is being shown.  He is too certain he is right, and that he knows so much more than the one trying to help him, especially someone younger, or less educated, or even less well off financially, as if somehow that could possibly matter.  And if a woman says something?  Forget it.  He cannot possibly learn anything from a woman.  In fact, it might be unscriptural, regardless the example of Priscilla.  I have seen those attitudes again and again.
            Apollos is one marvelous lesson on humility.  Any time we cannot be troubled to listen to someone else we need to remember this.  After his instruction by Priscilla (who had an important role in the discussion because her name is mentioned first) and Aquila, Apollos went on to powerfully confute the Jews…showing by the scripture that Jesus was the Christ (18:28).  He could not have done that without those two humble servants' help and instruction.  When our pride gets in the way, what will we not be able to do for the Lord?
 
​Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the LORD (Zeph 2:3).  
 
Dene Ward

When I was 14 a new young doctor came to town, one who was not afraid to “think outside the box.”  My older doctor turned me over to him and he decided to try contact lenses on me.  I had been wearing coke bottle glasses since I was 4 and my vision declined steadily year after year with the bottoms of the coke bottles getting thicker and thicker.
            In those days, hard, nonporous contact lenses were all they had.  Usually they were the size of fish scales.  Mine were not any broader in circumference but they were still as thick as miniature coke bottle bottoms and nearly as heavy on my eyes.  Most people who wore normal lenses could only tolerate them for six to eight hours.  Now add a cornea shaped like the end of a football, a corrugated football at that, and these things were not meant to be comfortable on my eyes, certainly not for the 16-18 hours a day I had to wear them.
            So why did I do it?  My prescription was +17.25.  The doctor told me there was no number on the chart for my vision.  (“Chart?  What chart?  I don’t see any chart.”)  He said if there were, it would be something like 20/10,000, a hyperbole I am sure, but it certainly made the point.  Hard contacts were my only hope.  If they could stabilize my eyesight, I would last a bit longer.  When I was 20, another doctor told me I would certainly have been totally blind by then if not for those contact lenses.
            Then soft contact lenses were invented and their popularity grew.  But they were not for me.  They would not have stabilized my vision.  I lost count of the number of times people who wore soft lenses said to me, “I tried those hard ones, but I just could not tolerate them.  You are so lucky you can wear them.”
            Luck had nothing to do with it.  My young doctor was smart.  He sat me down and said, “The only way you will be able to do this with these eyes is to really want to.  You must make up your mind that you will do it no matter what.”  That was quite a burden to place on a fourteen year old, but his tactics worked.  Despite the discomfort, I managed, and managed so well that most people never knew how uncomfortable I was.  Finally, when what seemed like the 1000th person told me they just could not tolerate hard lenses, I said, “You didn’t need them badly enough.”  Most of us can do much more than we ever thought possible when we really have to.
            Need is a strong motivation.  A couple of thousand years ago, it motivated a woman to go where she was not expected, normally not even allowed, and certainly not wanted. 
            Simon the Pharisee decided to have Jesus for dinner.  I read that it was the custom of the day for the leading Pharisee in the town to have the distinguished rabbi over for a meal when he sojourned there.  While the man would invite his friends to eat the meal, an open door policy made it possible for any interested party to come in and stand along the wall to listen--any interested man, that is.  Of course, it was assumed that only righteous men would be interested.
            In walked a “sinful” woman.  Luke, in chapter 7, uses a word that does not in itself imply any specific sin, but it was commonly used by that society to refer to what they considered the lowest of sinners, publicans and harlots.  The mere fact that she was a woman also caused someone in the crowd to exclaim, “Look!  A woman!” in what we assume was horrified shock.
            The men were all lying around a low table with their bodies resting on a couch and their feet turned away from the table in the direction of the wall, while their left elbows rested on the table.  The woman came into the room, walked around the wall, and began crying over Jesus’ feet.  Immediately, she knelt to wipe his feet with her hair.  I am told that this too was unacceptable.  “To unbind and loosen the hair in public before strangers was considered disgraceful and indecent for a woman,” commentator Lenski says.  We later discover that these were dirty, dusty feet from walking unpaved roads in sandals.  How do we know?  Because Simon did not even offer Jesus the customary hospitable foot washing. 
            Then she took an alabaster cruse of ointment, a costly gift, and anointed his feet—not just a token drop or two, but the entire contents--once the cruse was broken open, it was useless as a storage container.
            What did Simon do?  Nothing outward, but Jesus knew what he thought, and told him a story. 
            One man owed a lender 500 shillings, and another owed him 50.  Both were forgiven their debts when they could not pay.  Who, Jesus asked him, do you think was the most grateful?  The one who owed the most, of course, Simon easily answered.
            And so by using his own prejudices against him, Jesus proved that Simon himself was less grateful to God than this sinful woman.  His own actions, or lack thereof toward Jesus was the proof.  This man, like so many others of his party, was completely satisfied with himself and where he stood before God.  And that satisfaction blinded him to his own need, for truly no one can stand before God in his own righteousness.  His gratitude suffered because he did not feel his need.  Would he have gone into a hostile environment and lowered himself to do the most menial work a servant could do, and that in front of others?  Hardly.
            So how much do I think I need the grace of God?  The answer is the same one to how far I will go to get it, how much I will sacrifice to receive it, and how much pain I will put up with for even the smallest amount to touch my life.  Am I a self-satisfied Simon the Pharisee, more concerned with respectability than with his own need for forgiveness, or a sinful woman, who probably took the deepest breath of her life and walked into a room full of hostile men because she knew it was her only chance at Life? 
 
And turning to the woman, he said unto Simon, See this woman? I entered into your house; you gave me no water for my feet: but she has wet my feet with her tears, and wiped them with her hair.  You gave me no kiss: but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet.  My head with oil you did not anoint: but she has anointed my feet with ointment.  So I say unto you, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, loves little.  And he said unto her, Your sins are forgiven… Your faith has saved you; go in peace, Luke 7:44-48,50.
 
Dene Ward
 

Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.
 
Previously I wrote about John 13.  Jesus demonstrated, and then commanded, a love that was shown in self-sacrificing service even to one's enemies.  The devotional was concluded by quoting Phil. 2:3-4:  "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others."  Paul provides an example of this type of love (aside from the Lord) later in this very chapter. 
 
Phil. 2:25-30  "I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need, for he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill.  Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him . . . . So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men, for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me."
 
            First, understand Paul's opinion of Epaphroditus.  "MY brother, MY fellow worker and fellow soldier".  Great men often are reluctant to claim any as equals.  Given how many of us view Paul, we might expect him to be similarly remote, yet he holds Epaphroditus close.  This was clearly a great man!  Epaphroditus' love for others is first evident in his concern for the anxiety his brethren in Philippi would feel when they heard that he was sick.  He wasn't worried for his own things (he was sick!), he was thinking of the things of others.
            The love shown by service that Jesus demonstrated in John 13, the looking out for the interest of others, is seen in how Epaphroditus became sick.  Paul says Epaphroditus "nearly died for the work of Christ".  What was that work?  "Service to me," Paul says.  While Paul was in prison, Epaphroditus was so focused on filling Paul's needs that he didn't take care of himself.  He worked himself to exhaustion.  I can almost hear the conversation:
 
Paul:  "Epaphroditus, you don't look so good.  Maybe you should get some rest."
Epaphroditus:  "Right after I get the food put away in the pantry, Paul.  Oh! and then your next shipment of parchment comes in later this morning.  And someone needs to get you a new robe.  And this afternoon I'm interviewing a new stenographer for you.  I'll rest later." 
 
            Epaphroditus' total devotion to the needs of others is a great example for us in learning how to "love one another even as I have loved you" John 13:34.
 
:Lucas Ward

Have you discovered panko yet?  Panko is Japanese bread crumbs, an extra light variety that cooks up super-crunchy on things like crab cakes and shrimp.  They also cost more than regular bread crumbs, but in certain applications they are worth it.    On the other hand a chicken or veal Milanese needs a sturdier crumb to stand up to the lemony butter sauce, an oven fried pork chop needs melba toast crumbs that will cook to a crunch without burning in a high heat oven, and my favorite broccoli casserole needs the faint sweetness of a butter cracker crumb to really set it off.
            Although none of these dishes are the food of poverty, using the crumbs and crusts of food rather than tossing them out certainly grew out of the necessity of using whatever was at hand to feed hungry bellies for thousands of years, and now we all do it, even when there is plenty in the pantry.  Pies and cheesecakes with graham cracker crumb crusts, anyone?  Dressing to stuff your poultry?  Bread pudding on a cold winter night?  Streusel on that warm coffee cake in the morning?  Bread-infused peasant food has even shown up on gourmet cooking shows in the form of panzanella (salad) and ribolita (soup), both of which use chunks of stale bread to bolster their ability to satisfy appetites.
            That reminds me of a woman 2000 years ago who understood the value of leftovers.  Her little daughter was demon-possessed, so ill she could not travel, but her mother had heard of someone who might be able to help, who even then was in hiding from the crowds on the border of her country.  It took a lot for her to seek him out, first leaving her sick child in someone else’s care, then approaching this Jewish rabbi, a type who had either reviled or ignored her all her life; but a desperate mother will make any sacrifice to save her child.
            Sure enough, even though she addressed him by the Messianic title, “Son of David,” he answered her not a word, Matt 15:22,23.  Still she persisted, and this time she was insulted—he called her a dog.  Oh, he was nicer about it than most, using the Greek word for “little pet dog,” kunarion, rather than the epithet she usually heard from his kind--kuno, ownerless scavenging dogs that run wild in the streets, but still he made her inequality in his eyes obvious.
            This woman, though, was ready to accept his judgment of her, Even the dogs get the crumbs, sir.  Moreover, she understood that was all she needed.  This man, whose abilities she had heard of from afar, was more than just a man, and even the tiniest morsel of his power was enough to heal her child, even from a distance.
            Do we understand that?  Do we realize that one drop of God’s power can fix any problem we have, and more, do we have the humility to accept our place in His plan, even if it is not what we have planned?  Yes, every day I ask for more—more grace, more faith, more of His power to change me and use me, but do I really comprehend His strength?  I would say it was impossible to do so, except for the example of this desperate Gentile mother who, like a widow of her nation hundreds of years before her, had more faith, trust, and humility than the religious men of God’s chosen people (I Kgs 17, Luke 4:25,26).
            And for this, perhaps, God chose her to foreshadow in the Son’s life the crumbling of the barrier between Jew and Gentile, and the inclusive nature of the gospel which had been foretold from the beginning: in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed, Gen 22:17. 
            Do I have the faith and humility to accept God’s plan for me?  One thing is certain—this Gentile mother knew she had nowhere else to turn, and neither do we.
            Even God’s crumbs are enough to satisfy our every need.
 
For this cause I bow my knees to the Father…that you…may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God…him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think…Eph 3:14, 17-20.
 
Dene Ward

After these things he departed from Athens, and came to Corinth. And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, a man of Pontus by race, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome: and he came unto them; and because he was of the same trade, he abode with them, and they wrought; for by their trade they were tentmakers (Acts 18:1-3).
            Once again we have a few verses mentioning a particular woman and a boatload of lessons to be learned from her—Priscilla, the wife of Aquila.  And that is the first lesson.  Aquila and Priscilla were always a team.  They worked at a trade together, they taught together (Apollos), and they served together.  Even in a time when we know that the apostles often traveled with their wives (1 Cor 9:5), we read nothing of them, not even their names. But Priscilla was right there working next to her man, and everyone knows her name as a result.
            Next, she was a woman who had a trade—like Paul, she and her husband made tents.  I can imagine the three of them sitting in the agora working on their latest orders, perhaps in one of the very tents they had made.  But her work did not stop her from taking in a stranger—for it seems that Paul did not know them before he encountered them.  In fact, we do not know whether they were already Christians or he converted them when he met them.  If the second, then this new convert did exactly as Lydia did—she immediately began a life of service to others.  (See Part 1.)  She did not use her work as an excuse not to practice hospitality.  And Paul did not come into her home for just one meal; he lived with them for a year and a half.  Not only that, they welcomed the church Paul began there into their home (1 Cor 16:19).
            Aquila and Priscilla moved a lot.  They began life in Pontus, a region along the Black Sea.  When I mentioned this in class, one especially industrious lady checked the longitudes and latitudes and discovered that Pontus lay along the same latitudes as our state of Maine!  I am sure they saw snow in the winter, something we rarely associate with Bible lands.  Somehow they made it to Rome, but were expelled with all the other Jews by Claudius.  They then traveled to Corinth where Paul found them, but when he left 18 months later, they went with him to Ephesus.  He left them there as he continued his journey but came across them once again back in Rome sometime after the death of Claudius (AD 54).  Once again, the church is meeting in their home (Rom 16:3-5).  I knew a family who hosted the church in their home, twice on Sundays and once on Wednesday evenings week after week after week.  That meant keeping the house up constantly, no letdowns when times got busy and life distracting.  No one expected perfection, but there had to be ample places to sit in a configuration for teaching.  Eventually they even built a room on the back of their home at their own expense.  Aquila and Priscilla at work for the Lord's body in a different generation.
            And just like Lydia, Aquila and Priscilla sacrificed their security.  …Who for my life laid down their own necks…Rom 16:4.  We do not know exactly what they did for Paul, but he considered them life savers in such a way that they could have lost their own.  Priscilla did not hide behind her husband's robes.  Evidently, she put herself forward for Paul's sake every bit as much as he did, a truly brave woman.
            These early Christians we know so little about can easily put us to shame.  Here we are complaining about hot (or cold) auditoriums, hard pews, and boring preachers while they lived in so much less wealth and comfort and were willing to give up their things, their homes, their identities, even their lives for the cause of the Lord.
            And we have even more of them to study…
 
Hereby know we love, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (1John 3:16).
 
Dene Ward
 

I received this book as a gift and when I saw the author's name I was so excited that I read it immediately.  Brother Hall is a virtual legend and anything he writes is worth reading.
            First, recognize that this was written as a tribute to his late wife Caneta, "mother of five and wife of 69 years."  That makes everything in it that much more poignant.
            Second, I believe that this should be approached as a classbook.  Brother Hall has added discussion questions after each of the thirteen lessons (see? a teaching quarter) that could keep a class going far more than the requisite 45 minutes most allow and well into the hour that ladies' classes on weekdays usually allot. 
            Third, it is not just a young mothers' book.  Any mother or grandmother can gain from it, as well as others who serve as mentors and counselors for the women who approach them for advice.  We are all mothers our whole lives if we are willing to serve that way.
            The book also contains two appendices.  The first one, written by a teenager (I assume) about how she values her virginity, should be required reading for every teenage Christian, male or female.  Whoever and wherever this young woman is (brother Hall could not find her), she deserves our thanks for her frank and touching essay.
            As I first read through the table of contents on this book I was amazed.  I knew that we have a fair amount of material about Mary, including some logical inferences we can make, but I would have been hard-pressed to come up with 13 lessons.  Brother Hall in his vast experience and knowledge of the scriptures has done far more than I would have thought possible.
            Mary, Model of Motherhood was published by Mount Bethel Publishing.
 
Dene Ward

My class has spent several weeks on some women in the New Testament whose lives barely cover three or four verses.  But the number and depth of the lessons these women have taught us is staggering.
            Can we start with Lydia?  Evidently, Lydia was a believer in God, but a Gentile.  Paul encountered her in Philippi, down by the river where several other women like her met together on the Sabbath.  So what, one may ask.  First this, Lydia was not from Philippi, she was from Thyatira.  For some reason or other she had relocated and set up shop.  That involves a whole lot more than you might think.  According to Everett Ferguson in Backgrounds of Early Christianity, that meant she had to go through the same red tape we would have to today, first joining a guild of dyers and second, applying for permits and probably paying a fee to set up her business in the agora.  And that means she must have been a successful businesswoman if she was able to do all that.
            Yet, she is also a believer in God somehow.  Whether she encountered the teaching in her hometown or in Philippi we don't know.  But we do know that she knew enough to worship on the Sabbath and cared enough to find a community of believers (since there was evidently no synagogue) and meet with them.  The first lesson she teaches us is to always travel with the Lord.  She didn't leave him behind and she never "went on vacation" from Him.  Perhaps those other women were all like her—Gentile believers, another thing we don't know.  But we do know that she accepted the gospel and became part of the fledgling church in that town.  Even Jews learned in the Scriptures had a hard time doing that, and so her open-mindedness is another lesson.
            And here may be her biggest lesson of all.  Immediately after her baptism, she looked at Paul and Silas and said, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us  (Acts 16:15).  When Paul taught her the gospel, he taught her that it was not about what she could get out of it; it was about following a suffering servant by serving others, and she did so, insisting she be allowed to, immediately.  I have actually heard Christians tell elders exactly what they expected from the church now that they were members.  Others may not say it, but certainly act like it.  Lydia knew better.  She was so grateful for her salvation that she couldn't wait to give something back, even knowing it would never actually repay the bill.
            So she took Paul and Silas into her home, and here we see another lesson.  She may have known these two men, but did her neighbors?  More important, did her customer base?  All they knew were two rabble rousing jailbirds, but Lydia had no qualms about taking them in or the effect it might have had on her reputation or business.  This was how she helped spread a gospel that had saved her, and she was ready to sacrifice whatever necessary.
            All those lessons from the three verses that mention her name, Acts 16:14,15,40.  Lydia was truly a remarkable woman, one who deserves far more notice than she is usually given.  If we learn her lessons, we can be too.
 
But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:43-45).
 
Dene Ward