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Show By DR. KENNETH J. FOREMAN SCRIPTURE J Acu 18:1-8. 18-26; Romans Ro-mans 1G:3-Ca: I Corinthtant 16:19) II Timothy 4:19. DEVOTIONAL READING i I Corinth-tans Corinth-tans 12:4-11. HomeTeam Lesson for September 5, 1948 HUSBAND AND WIPE: Team o tug-of-war? In times wheq ' more and more homes are splitting apart, it Is refreshing to read the ... M,mm. story of one horn a Z 11131 stuck together, i' ' jfe i e do not know V whether these two ever na children; 1 -' no doubt their home was happier if they Ylffeh had. But we da 'f KnoyN their names. Xjh 'j I No one who ever spoke of them men- Dr. Foreman . . . ... . tioned one without the other. You could not think oi Aquila without thinking cf his wife Priscilla (or Prisca for short), or vice versa. They were displaced persons, but that did not keep thero down. Family Trade Union LIKE ALL JEWS of that time, they had a specialty, a trade 1 they had learned. In this case Bomeone had taught Prisca the same trade (or did she learn it from her husband?), so the two of them formed a sort of trade union. They were tentmakers, working not only in heavy tent-cloth but In the tanned skins of which many tents in that time were made. Their home was a workshop, their hands were bent by long use of hard tools, very likely they initialed their produce. P it A tents were good tents. Their business was good, for we know they always had room for another guest, for another hand at the workbench. That was one thing helping their marriage to stick. How many husbands and wives today are working teams? One reason why divorces are more common In cities than on farms Is that the city man and his wife seldom have any work in common, while a farmer and his wife are a working team in which each needs the other to succeed. Find some work you two can share, even If it is washing the dishes, and yon have something to help you hold together through the years. More Than Meals ANOTHER bond that held these together was their hospitality. They had a long list of friends, some of them distinguished We know about Paul and Apollos and we hear of many others. But when Apollos stayed at their house, he was getting more than meals. If you don't do more for a guest than feed him, he might as well be at a restaurant. If you don't do more than amuse him. he might as well be at the movies. What those two did for Apollos was to give him ideas, bigger ideas, truer and better bet-ter than he had ever had, about the Christian faith. No doubt Apollos enjoyed Priscilla's lamb chops, but when he left that home he was not merely a well-fed man but one, whose soul had grown. Here again is something for husband and wife today. What are you doing for the people who come in your door? If they come for dinner you wouldn't insult in-sult them with trash or poison. What do you give their minds, their souls? Poison, trash or food? The Church in Their House EVIDENTLY the P & A tents made enough money for Priscilla Pris-cilla and Aquilla to have a spacious home, for we find Paul in a letter mentioning "the church in their house." This more than anything else kept these two together, a working team. You know in every church there are a few key people. They may not be conspicuous, but like the distributor under an automobile auto-mobile hood, if they are not there things do not run smoothly and maybe not at all. Aquila and Priscilla were like that Their church naturally revolved re-volved around them. This must have taken a good deal of their time, no doubt It cost them money, and it must have meant work. But if the church was in their house It was because they wanted it that way. It would be hard to believe that they asked for this so as to keep themselves from drifting apart; yet undoubtedly that was one effect of it. The great majority of divorces arc among people who have no connection with the church whatever. Many, of course, are of persons who are on church rolls somewhere. But how many broken marriages do you know among persons who arc active in Christian work? fCopvrlghl by tbe International Council oi Reliqiout Education on behoii oi 40 Protestant denomination. Rleasd by WNU Features.) |