Scripture 2 Timothy 1:5-6
What do the following have in common?
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook
Jack Dorsey, Twitter
Ben Silbermann, Pinterest
Kevin Systrom, Instagram
Tom Anderson, Myspace
Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn
David Karp, Tumblr
Chad Hurley, YouTube
What do the following have in common? They are all mothers
– gave birth to social media.
Every Social Network needs someone
to give it birth – needs a mother. In the end of time – the mothers of social
media will not be so important – but the mothers of children are of great
importance in the eyes and heart of God. I don’t say that because I loved my
own mother. I say that because the bible says so.
Motherhood is one of life’s highest
honors, and one of its heaviest responsibilities. The hours her children spend
in her presence will have a lasting influence on their lives. They will become
largely what she makes them. She faces the noble challenge of molding their
young lives for eternity.
God’s (Bible) view of
mothers
Necessary:
Gen 3:20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the
living. Gen 4:1-2 Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant
and gave birth to Cain. She said, "With
the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man." 2 Later she
gave birth to his brother Abel. Gen
4:19 Adam lay with his wife again, and
she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, "God has granted
me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him." Gen 5:4-5 After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and
daughters. 5 Altogether, Adam lived 930 years, and then he died.
Spiritual:
2 Tim 1:5-6 I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first
lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded,
now lives in you also.
Lorne Sanny of The Navigators
once wrote of his mother: "My mother gave birth to me in a frontier house
on a Midwestern prairie. On the kitchen counter she placed a list of the
ingredients necessary for my formula. At the top of the list was 'prayer,' and
that remained at the top of her list for me throughout her life...I have her to
thank for firmly establishing my spiritual roots."
When Robert Ingersoll, the
notorious skeptic, was in his heyday, two college students went to hear him
lecture. As they walked down the street after the lecture, one said to the
other, “Well, I guess he knocked the props out from under Christianity, didn’t
he?” The other said, “No, I don’t think he did. Ingersoll did not explain my
mother’s life, and until he can explain my mother’s life I will stand by my
mother’s God.”
Personal:
God cares for
the single mom: Gen 21:9-20 But
Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was
mocking, and she said to Abraham, "Get rid of that slave woman and her
son, for that slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with my son
Isaac." The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his
son. But God said to him, "Do not be so distressed about the boy and your
maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac
that your offspring will be reckoned. I will make the son of the maidservant
into a nation also, because he is your offspring." Early the next morning
Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on
her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and
wandered in the desert of Beersheba. When the water in the skin was gone, she
put the boy under one of the bushes. Then she went off and sat down nearby,
about a bowshot away, for she thought, "I cannot watch the boy die."
And as she sat there nearby, she began to sob. God heard the boy crying, and
the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, "What is the
matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there.
Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great
nation." Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went
and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. God was with the boy as
he grew up.
A little
boy forgot his lines in a Sunday school presentation. His mother was in the
front row to prompt him. She gestured and formed the words silently with her
lips, but it did not help. Her son's memory was blank. Finally, she leaned
forward and whispered the cue, "I am the light of the world." The
child beamed and with great feeling and a loud clear voice said, "My
mother is the light of the world." (Personal is known not by what a mother
says about her children but what her children say about her - Proverbs 31:28-31 Her
children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: "Many women do noble things, but you
surpass them all." deceptive, and
beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her
the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.)
When a child speaks of his mother with praise and sees to her needs, that is
truly a mother whom God has blessed. There is one mother more blessed than all
others that truly reveals the heart of God toward moms. (God doesn’t have a
mom)
In the midst of the most important
event in history (Jesus death on the cross) that is covered in relatively short
fashion – there are three sentences that have nothing to do with Jesus dying
for the sins of the world and they only directly affect two people. Seems
amazing it was included in scripture and even more amazing that the messiah of
the world in the midst of causing the difference of heaven and hell for
billions of people that he would pause for just two people – really just for
one. Who was that person? His mom.
John 19:25-27 Near
the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of
Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple
whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this
disciple took her into his home.
It is that
event that brings us to the table – COMMUNION What Jesus did on the cross for
his mother shows how much God loves mothers but what he accomplished on the
cross shows how much, like a mother – God loves us: Years ago, a young mother was making her way across the hills of South
Wales, carrying her tiny baby in her arms, when she was overtaken by a blinding
blizzard. She never reached her destination and when the blizzard had subsided
her body was found by searchers beneath a mound of snow. But they discovered
that before her death, she had taken off all her outer clothing and wrapped it
about her baby. When they unwrapped the child, to their great surprise and joy,
they found he was alive and well. She had mounded her body over his and given
her life for her child, proving the depths of her mother love. Years later that
child, David Lloyd George, grown to manhood, became prime minister of Great
Britain, and, without doubt, one of England’s greatest statesman.
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