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God's Greatness In Grandparents
Contributed by Mark Aarssen on Nov 16, 2011 (message contributor)
Summary: If you’re a Grandparent and a Christian then you need to know that God has put greatness within you to be lavished on your Grandchildren. You just might be sharing ice cream with one of the giants of our faith who just hasn’t grown up yet.
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Gods Greatness in Grandparents
2 Timothy 1:1-14
If you’re a Grandparent and a Christian then you need to know that God has put greatness within you to be lavished on your Grandchildren.
At a round-table discussion, various religious leaders tried to answer the question "When does life begin?"
"At conception," said the first.
"No, no," said the second. "It begins at birth."
"It's in between," said the third. "Life begins at 12 weeks when the fetus develops a functional heartbeat."
"I disagree with all of you," said a Rabbi. "Life begins when your last child leaves home and takes the dog with him." http://www.butlerwebs.com/jokes/parents.htm
For those of us who are fortunate enough to be called Grandparents we would argue with all that theological opinion and assert that life begins when you’re a Grandparent because the Bible says so.
"Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a righteous life."
Proverbs 16:31
"Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers."
Proverbs 17:6
Did you know that there is a test that you can take to become a Grandmother?
THE GRANDMA TEST
A woman was out walking with her 4-year-old granddaughter. The child picked up something
off the ground and started to put it in her mouth. The woman took the item away from
the child and said “please don’t do that”.
"Why?" the child asked.
"Because it's been on the ground. You don't know where it's been, it's
dirty, and probably has germs," was the reply.
At this point, the granddaughter looked at the Grandmother with total admiration and
asked, "Grandma, how do you know all this stuff? You are so smart."
Thinking quickly she said, "All Grandmas know this stuff. It's on the Grandma
Test. You have to know it, or they don't let you be a Grandma."
They walked along in silence for 2 or 3 minutes, but the little girl was evidently
pondering this new information. "Oh...I get it!" she beamed, "So if you
don't pass the test, you have to be the Grandpa."
"Exactly," replied the Grandmother. Posted by John Jaeger
http://cleanhumorplace.blogspot.com/search/label/Grandparent%20Humor
Today we will look at God’s word and try to learn a life lesson from Lois the Grandmother of Timothy.
We get very little information about Lois but that does not prevent us from learning about the impact she had on a young boy.
Timothy is the first second generation Christian mentioned in the New Testament. Timothy is credited as the person to whom the Epistles were entrusted to by Paul and since Timothy had travelled with Paul on many of his missionary journeys it is reasonable to assume that Timothy would have made reference to the other letters written by Paul since he was present at the planting of some of these churches to whom these other letters were addressed.
Timothy grew up in a home with a Jewish mother and a Greek father. His Grandmother Lois was also Jewish. At that time families kept the Grandparents around and even had them living under the same roof. This was most likely the situation for Timothy.
He was raised to look like a Greek and talk like a Greek but his spiritual training was from his maternal Grandmother and mother who were both Jewish/Christians as mentioned by Paul.
2 Timothy 1:5
5 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.
Timothy lived in a town called Lystra in what is present day Turkey. It was a rocky region with small mountains and streams. Paul had healed a man there who was lame from birth and the man jumped up and began to walk around Acts 14:8.
The people of the town thought that Paul and Barnabas were the Greek gods Hermes and Zeus. They were so impressed with the miracle that they wanted to offer sacrifices to them. But Paul and Barnabas tore their cloths to show they were just ordinary men and not gods. Paul then used the opportunity to tell them of the true God and of Jesus God’s son.
Their message made the local Jews upset and so the Jewish leaders turned the Pagan crowd against Paul and Barnabas and had Paul stoned since he was the chief speaker. They left Paul for dead but the disciples of Lystra gathered around Paul and he rose to his feet. The next day Paul and Barnabas left for Derbe a town farther north.
It is possible that Lois and Eunice were some of those early disciples who gathered around Paul after he had been stoned or they most certainly would have heard of the incident. But the Bible does not tell us if they were or were not in the crowd.