{"id":531,"date":"2014-01-08T05:28:25","date_gmt":"2014-01-08T10:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godonomics\/?p=531"},"modified":"2014-01-08T09:10:26","modified_gmt":"2014-01-08T14:10:26","slug":"lydia-the-christian-capitalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2014\/01\/lydia-the-christian-capitalist.html","title":{"rendered":"Lydia: The Christian Capitalist"},"content":{"rendered":"<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Teen Mother places Child For Adoption 5\/5\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zlCZgX0ZqCM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>Few women practiced Godonomics better than Lydia. Her story from the book of acts is an example of a leader, an entrepreneur, a successful business builder, and mother. She produces a high end product (a seller of purple material) to a high end clientele in the strategic sales town of Philippi nestled on border of Europe and Asia. She produced, profited, and invested in her economy. She was a lavish giver as well. Her financial backing, life change, and strategic thinking helped begin a church known for it&#8217;s lavish generosity (Philippians\u00a04).<\/p>\n<p>Phillipi was home of some of the largest gold and silver deposits in the world. It was a city filled with business owners and professionals. Dr Luke who wrote the book of Luke and Acts lived there.<\/p>\n<p>Lydia&#8217;s secret to life and career included regular prayer, strong listening, and passionate persuading.<\/p>\n<p><em>11 Therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day came to Neapolis,12 and from there to Philippi, which is the foremost city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. And we were staying in that city for some days. 13 And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where <strong>prayer was customarily<\/strong> made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there.<\/em>b<\/p>\n<p>But these women made prayer a priority. They made their spiritual lives a priority. They put themselves in environments to prioritize the priority of prayer and spiritual growth. \u00a0They created customs to pray even in the midst of a busy professional life.<\/p>\n<p>Lydia&#8217;s success in life and business can also be attributed to her strong listening skills. Listening is the glue of a family, a marriage, or any successful company. \u00a0 Free market capitalism requires the seller to really listen to the needs of the customer and offer a product they want at the right price and quality. Lydia did that.<\/p>\n<p><em>14 Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Lydia heard them. She was a listener, a searcher, an explorer of truth. In fact the phrase used to describe her \u201cOne who\u00a0worshiped\u00a0God\u201d or \u201cGod-fearer\u201d is a technical term in those days. \u00a0A God-fearer was not a \u201cchristian\u201d but a person who was aware of God, studying who God was, but hadn\u2019t put all the pieces together. \u00a0Lydia grew up in a city with a synagogue called Thyatira where she learned about God, his law, and his will, but was unaware and unsure of the whole Jesus thing. \u00a0Yet despite her concerns and lack of knowledge, she continued to pursue an informal education weekly at the riverside.<\/p>\n<p>She was also a professional, a \u201cseller of purple\u201d. \u00a0This was a high end business. Most couldn\u2019t afford purple, so Lydia had a high end clientele. \u00a0 A successful business by all observations. And yet her success, her business, and her busy career didn\u2019t stop her from either prioritizing her faith or keeping an open heart.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, it shows that God \u201copened her heart\u201d to heed the things spoken by Paul.<\/p>\n<p>The final skill Lydia has in life and business was her ability to persuade.<\/p>\n<p><em>15 And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, \u201cIf you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.\u201d So she persuaded us.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>If you listen carefully, you can almost hear the mother in Lydia from these words. She decided to trust Christ as forgiver and leader. And her husband did the same, and her whole household. Not sure how many kids she had, but all of her household is infected by this new message of hope. The whole family was so impacted, they got baptized.<\/p>\n<p>Lydia was a leader. Lydia cast a vision. She was able to passionately persuade not only her household to hear this message of forgiveness of Christ, but then she begins to persuade Paul and his team to stay with her. She wants to serve them. Wants them to stay with her. Luke, the writer of Acts, says, \u201cShe persuaded us.\u201d She talked us into this. &#8220;We\u00a0couldn&#8217;t\u00a0say no&#8230;&#8221; \u00a0 I even like the \u201chint of mother guilt you hear in her speech to them&#8230;\u201d \u00a0 She says, \u201c<strong>IF<\/strong> you judged us faithful, you\u2019ll come to my house&#8230;\u201d \u00a0If you really think this \u201ctook\u201d and really think we \u201cgot it\u201d and really think \u201cthis is important\u201d you\u2019ll stay with me.<\/p>\n<p>Leaders can persuade, guilt, and \u201cbeg\u201d us into things that we\u00a0wouldn&#8217;t\u00a0otherwise do. Lydia was Persuasive and\u00a0Passionate\u00a0 she wanted to serve others. She wanted to help others. \u00a0In fact, a few days later Paul will be beaten and whipped for sharing with others the same message he shared with her&#8230; And in the midst of his pain and hurt, we find Lydia again.<\/p>\n<p><em>40 So they went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>For more information, check out\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.godonomics.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">www.godonomics.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.godonomics.com\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.godonomics.com\/images\/godonomics-header.png\" width=\"600\" height=\"162\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Few women practiced Godonomics better than Lydia. Her story from the book of acts is an example of a leader, an entrepreneur, a successful business builder, and mother. She produces a high end product (a seller of purple material) to a high end clientele in the strategic sales town of Philippi nestled on border of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":353,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,65,72,81],"tags":[97],"class_list":["post-531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-capitalismsocialism","category-generosity","category-gospel","category-work","tag-mom-mothers-day-christian-business-woman-listening-money"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Lydia: The Christian Capitalist - Godonomics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lydia: The Christian Capitalist - Godonomics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Few women practiced Godonomics better than Lydia. 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He graduated from Moody Bible College in Chicago, majoring in pastoral ministry and communication. His love for ministry and creativity can be seen in many forms: leading teams, expository teaching, acting, and video production. He has served as pastor at two high-impact churches in Georgia: Cumberland Community Church and New Community Church. Chad received an M.A. in Ministry from Moody Graduate School in 2008. He loves volleyball, movies, and hanging out with his wife Beth and their three children.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.godonomics.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/author\/chadhovind"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/353"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2729,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531\/revisions\/2729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}