Today’s Podcast
Today’s Scriptures
Today’s Bible reading plans include:
Ready – Acts 18:1-17
Set – Job 11; Acts 18
Go! – Job 11; Acts 17-18
Acts 18:1-17
1 From Athens, Paul traveled to Corinth alone. 2 He found a Jewish man there named Aquila, originally from Pontus. Aquila and his wife Priscilla had recently come to Corinth from Italy because Claudius had banished all Jews from Rome. Paul visited them in their home 3 and discovered they shared the same trade of tent making. He then became their long-term guest and joined them in their tentmaking business. 4 Each Sabbath he would engage both Jews and Greeks in debate in the synagogue in an attempt to persuade them of his message. 5 Eventually Silas and Timothy left Macedonia and joined him in Corinth. They found him fully occupied by proclaiming the message, testifying to the Jewish people that Jesus was God’s Anointed, the Liberating King. 6 Eventually, though, some of them stopped listening and began insulting him. He shook the dust off his garments in protest.
Paul: OK. I’ve done all I can for you. You are responsible for your own destiny before God. From now on, I will bring the good news to the outsiders!
7 He walked out of the synagogue and went next door to the home of an outsider, Titius Justus, who worshiped God. 8 Paul formed a gathering of believers there that included Crispus (the synagogue leader) and his whole household and many other Corinthians who heard Paul, believed, and were ceremonially washed through baptism. 9 One night Paul had a vision in which he heard the Lord’s voice.
The Lord: Do not be afraid, Paul. Speak! Don’t be silent! 10 I am with you, and no one will lay a finger on you to harm you. I have many in this city who are already My people.
11 After such turmoil in previous cities, these words encouraged Paul to extend his stay in Corinth, teaching the message of God among them for a year and six months.
12 During this time, some Jews organized an attack on Paul and made formal charges against him to Gallio, the proconsul of Achaia.
Jews: 13 This man is convincing people to worship God in ways that contradict our Hebrew Scriptures.
Paul was about to speak, but Gallio spoke first.
Gallio: 14 Look, if this were some serious crime, I would accept your complaint as a legitimate legal case, 15 but this is just more of your typical Jewish squabbling about trivialities in your sacred literature. I have no interest in getting dragged into this kind of thing.
16 So he threw out their case and drove them away from his bench. 17 They were furious and seized Sosthenes, the synagogue official; then they beat him in front of the tribunal. Gallio just ignored them.
Today’s Devotional
From today’s background scripture God might say:
I want you to see something special about Paul’s discovery when he visited Corinth. He went to the city alone and began looking for people. The two special people he found were Aquila and Priscilla. Their names will come up again in many of his letters to the churches he founded throughout Asia Minor.
Now here’s what I want you to note about the relationship that grew between Paul and his new friends. Paul was looking for companionship in Corinth. He had been beaten, jailed, stoned, given up for dead, abused in many ways for preaching the good news about Me in the cities he visited along his journey. He just wanted to find a friend.
Note that Aquila and Priscilla were in the same business as Paul’s family. They were tentmakers. Paul came alone to the city and needed to find a quick way to find a friend, make some money for food and lodging or find someone who would provide it. So it was natural for him to go to a tentmaker to see if they could use another hand. They soon became fast friends and accepted Paul’s message of Me with enthusiasm.
Not only did they accept My message, but they took Paul in, became the foundation for the first church in Corinth, gave Paul housing and food so he could concentrate on preaching the message I sent him to preach, encouraged him in his mission journeys, and so much more. They also discipled new Christians in their growing church and gave generously to the Jews going through trials in Jerusalem. Aquila and Priscilla are benchmarks of what Christian laypersons should be in My church.
What about you? Do you look for people in your community with common interests to join them in friendship so you can share the message with them? Do you find common ground so those that need to hear My message will accept it from a friend? Do you recognize that you must first be a friend before you can really be My messenger?
Take after Paul and find a friend to share My message. You’ll be amazed at what I can do in their life and yours.
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