Acts 18

My name, Donna, is supposed to mean "Lady" but I think a more accurate meaning would be "Procrastination"! Always have, always will. That is part of the reason I wanted to read through the New Testament in a year because I thought it would give me some sort of a deadline - always work better with deadlines. However, I am now officially 5 days behind on my blog. But hey, it is more consistent reading in the Bible than I have done in years. And the last time I read all the way through Acts was when I was a senior in high school. The book means something completely different to me now. But that is why the Bible is called, "The Living Word of God"; it changes and fits your life as you grow and require different insight.

I see some familiar names in this chapter. Aquila and Priscilla and Apollo. I also like that Paul is visiting Corinth and Ephesus for the first time because those are a couple of my favorite letters in the New Testament. Good to see his first visits to these cities before he wrote those letters.

How great it would have been to be Aquila and Priscilla, Paul's good friends. They were sort of the first husband and wife team of the Christian church before Billy and Ruth Graham, Bill and Gloria Gaither, and many dear couples that I have known in the church, growing up, that were mentors of mine. Aquila, Priscilla and Paul were all tent makers. Hmm. I don't think I would have wanted to be a tent maker. I wonder what kind of issues Priscilla was dealing with the women of Corinth, back then.

Paul was getting pretty tired of the Jews rejection of the Good News. "But when they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, 'Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.'". v6 Can you blame him? I could only imagine the constant slams of doors in his face or public ridicule. But the Lord came to him in a vision for encouragement, "Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city." v.9-10 Corinth was one of Paul's longest visits: a year and a half.

From there he went to Antioch with Priscilla and Aquila, then onto Ephesus where he will meet Apollo. Apollo had been a follower of John the Baptist and knew the scriptures "he was mighty in the scriptures" v.24 and was doing some fantastic speaking but needed some refining. So Priscilla and Aquila took him aside and "and explained to him the way of God more accurately." v.26 Apollo would travel and be a powerful speaker. "...for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ." v.28

Below, some great shots! Remember...