19_05_12_-_Time_to_Wake_Up

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Time to Wake Up
Acts 9:36-43

• Happy Mother’s Day!
  • Good memories…
    • Some ine: apple trees, drink cups, “time to wake up”
  • We are thankful this day for the love God shows us through the mothers and mother-figures in our lives
    • And we single one out of scripture as an example…
      
  • Tabitha/Dorcas (maybe a mother; certainly a mother-figure)
    • She lived in Joppa, a port town on the Mediterranean just south of what is now Tel Aviv. The modern name is Jaffa, & it remains a thriving town in Israel.
    • Was called a “disciple”
      • One who is seeking to grow in the ways of faith and life, trusting God and serving God.
      • But THIS “disciple” in this passage is the ONLY feminine form of the word used in the whole Bible. She is the only woman in the Bible that gets labeled a DISCIPLE.
    • She was called by God to works of charity
      • Showed God’s love to widows (and orphans?), who were among the most vulnerable of society
      • Was she a widow? We don’t know.  A mother? We don’t know.  Were the widows followers of Christ? 
        
    • What we DO know, and what her story should teach us:
      • We do know that the widows loved her! Probably because she had first loved them.  Sound familiar?
      • We know that she was not just fond of doing works of charity (agape love) but devoted to them. Moms tend to be devoted to their child’s well-being.  Tabitha had widened her circle.
      • We know that she used what skills she had for God’s purpose.
      • She probably did her good works up to the last. We can imagine how she hung on to complete her work and then, finally, though that her work was done.  But we KNOW that God wasn’t done with her, and that MANY were saved!

• Let us not grow weary of well-doing!  Wake up!  Be thankful for those examples of holy love that God sets before us and become those examples for others!  People need more Tabithas in this life!