A great apostacy of the Lord’s church in New Zealand in the 1950s saw our numbers decimated. It was the work of an old single sister in the Lord that helped bring back the light (others were working elsewhere, also). Simply put, Miss Edie took some young men and raised the church around them. Scratch the surface of most local congregations and you will find stories of dedicated sisters having poured their hearts and resources into the growth of the church. They wanted nothing else—only that the church did well. Timothy’s Bible class was the home of his Greek father. His teachers and mentors his grandmother, Lois, and his mother, Eunice. The local synagogue and the Rabbis his home-church. Paul honours Lois and Eunice for the faith of Timothy. A faith that raised a boy who became a great man of God:“For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well” (2Tim.1:5).They would not have known the great things ahead for this son and grandson. Timothy’s father was a Greek. His mother and grandmother were Hebrews, who had become Christians. By all appearances, his dad allowed his wife and mother-in-law freedom to teach his son the Old Testament scriptures. Scriptures that brought Timothy to Christ. When arriving in Lystra, the apostle Paul was impressed to the point that he added Timothy to his missionary team on his Second Missionary Journey (Acts 16). It was a time of intense persecution for Paul (2Tim.3:10-11). Timothy became the preacher of the church in Ephesus. He had to deal with the persecutions of church wreckers of his own. Paul points to two things that would keep him focused—what he had learned and who he had learned them from. In some of his last words while on earth he honours Lois and Eunice:“You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2Tim.3:14-15).The hands that rocked that cradle helped to save the world!
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