"But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear for assuredly, I say to you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it" (Matt. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them."'" Oh, they had heard what He said, but they just did not really listen to Him or pay Him attention. "Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive for the hearts of this people have grown dull. He said of some in His day, "'And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: To "hear" in this sense means more than just to be aware of the noise or sound of something-it means to listen to or to pay attention. Lydia was obviously a believer in God, and that's always a good place to start in teaching anyone the gospel. No one could be called a worshipper of God who did not first believe in God. "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him" (Heb. Yet, the fact that Lydia worshipped God also tells us that she did believe in God, and this is important. We must make sure that our religion is right in God's sight The people of whom Paul spoke were religious, and even zealous in their religion, but they were religiously wrong and thus not saved. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God" (Rom. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. However, just being religious is not enough to be saved. The fact that Lydia worshipped God tells us that she was a religious woman, and that is commendable. However, it appears that there were very few Jews in Philippi because these women met for prayer by a riverside. Wherever there was a large enough colony of Jews, a synagogue was established. And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, 'If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.' So she persuaded us." Here we learn about the conversion of Lydia.įirst, we see that she worshipped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. While Paul and company were at Philippi, we read in Acts 16:13-15, "And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. Later, when they arrived at Troas, on the western coast of Asia Minor, Paul received a vision of a man of Macedonia saying, "Come over into Macedonia and help us." Immediately, they set sail across the Aegean Sea, landed at the port city of Neapolis, and went to Philippi which was the largest city of Macedonia. After Paul and Silas began Paul's second preaching trip, they came to Lystra where they found a young man named Timothy who joined them on their journey. The book of Acts is a revelation from God of His will for the church through the inspired activities of first-century Christians.