Daily Encouragement

Thursday, May 9, 2024

The last couple of days we were in north-central PA riding our bikes on several bike trails in addition to other interests such as farm markets, greenhouses and and an antique mill. This photo was taken at a restaurant where we ate along the Buffalo Valley Rail Trail between Lewisburg and Mifflintown. Yes, ladies, an old rusty train can come alive with a few flowers and greens!

"Aquila and Priscilla"

Note: Due to being out of town for our anniversary and a rather unsuitable hotel we did not post a message yesterday.

Message summary: Most of you can probably think of ministry couples like Aquila and Priscilla who have impacted your life for Christ. Brooksyne and I thank God for the ministry couples who have enriched both our marriage and ministry. Some people come to mind as a couple rather than individuals, and when we speak of them we more often refer to both rather than as individuals.

Listen to our message on your audio player.

"After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them" (Acts 18:1-3).

Years ago I (Brooksyne) was commending a couple for their valuable service to our church and said to them both; "You are such a precious couple. You remind me of Ananias and Sapphira in the New Testament".

I took my seat and about 30 minutes later during Stephen's sermon my mind drifted back to what I had said to the couple. "ANANIAS AND SAPPHIRA!" What was I thinking!! Of course I had meant to say Priscilla and Aquila, the devoted co-workers of Paul; not Ananias and Sapphira, the couple who lied to the Holy Spirit, fell down, and breathed their last.

Since there are very few couples mentioned in the Bible I occasionally get confused with these two couples. Of course during the sermon my mind was consumed with my ridiculous mistake. I apologized immediately following the service and the wife kindly received my apology and admitted afterwards, "You needn't have apologized since I didn't know the difference".

So today let us consider the most famous ministry couple in the New Testament, Aquila and his wife Priscilla. Actually they are the only couple in the NT associated with ministry together.

Today's text introduces them. In this portion of Acts the narrative focuses on Paul but there are many whom he encounters. Paul had left Athens after his stirring sermon on Mar's Hill and went to Corinth. Athens was the intellectual center of Greece while Corinth was a very rough commercialized city.

There he met Aquila and Priscilla. They had relocated to Corinth after Claudius had ordered the Jews to leave Rome. Surely being forcefully relocated was not a pleasant experience. In life we will face circumstances beyond our control but need to ultimately see them as God's providential dealings.

"Paul went to see them, and because he was a tentmaker just as they were, he stayed and worked with them". This is the only time we are told Paul was a tentmaker. However, Paul's native province of Cilicia was noted for its goats' hair cloth which was exported under the name of cilicium and was used largely for tentmaking.

Was it a letdown for Paul after having the prestige of addressing the intellectual elites in Athens? When I was in Bible College I had a job delivering propane to a tannery where they treated animal hides to make leather. This didn't have the pleasant odor we usually associate with leather but rather a horrific stench! I wonder if Paul grumbled as he worked? I don't think so!

If it was a let-down for Paul there is no indication of such. He saw ministry opportunities not just in preaching to a large gathering but in working with individuals while making tents.

The text does not specify whether Aquila and Priscilla were Christians when they met Paul. But Paul "worked with them". Whether he led them to faith in Christ or merely discipled them is not clear but later in the chapter they accompanied Paul when he departed Corinth to travel to Syria. At that point they stayed in Ephesus where they met a young firebrand named Apollos whom "they invited to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately" (Acts 18:26). The discipling they had received from Paul while making tents was now passed on to Apollos.

This couple is mentioned three more times in the Epistles including Paul’s final letter (2 Timothy). In Romans 16:3 Paul spoke of Priscilla and Aquila warmly and referred to them as his "coworkers".

Most of you can probably think of ministry couples like Aquila and Priscilla who have impacted your life for Christ. Brooksyne and I thank God for the ministry couples who have enriched both our marriage and our ministry. Some people always come to mind as a couple rather than individual, and when we speak of them we tend to refer to them both rather than as individuals.

Take a moment to thank God and pray for these couples today. As you have opportunity let them know of the blessing they have been to you! Sometimes the very people who inspire us along the way lose their spiritual focus or become wearied by life's struggles and need a fresh touch from the Lord which can be prompted by you. Let us also especially pray for those who are no longer a couple as God has called one of them to their new dwelling in heaven. It is so different and very hard for the one who remains here and we must not forget them. Is Christ asking you to be His messenger of encouragement today?

Be encouraged today, Hebrews 3:13

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Father, what a joy it is to walk along life's pathway with a loving companion who is present during times of celebration and times of disappointment while going through the aging process together. It seems that You make one strong while the other may be weak, and vice versa. You blend our strengths and weaknesses to make us an effective couple and a genuinely committed family. Thank you for your countless blessings that far outnumber the difficulties and heartaches of our lives. I pray that you would encourage our readers who are presently going through marital strife. Remind them that they will experience future blessing as they endure and work through their present difficulties. When we cut short the permanency intended in a marital relationship we miss so much of the blessing that comes years later after many of the earlier struggles are but a memory. And yet we know it takes both working together to work through marital strife and sadly it doesn't always come about the way You intend or the way we would hope for. Father, I thank You for the spouse of my youth and my partner for life who remains my constant companion as we grow old together. What a marvelous blessing You have granted us for which we are thankful! Amen.

Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources

"Day by Day" Watch on YouTube A hymn written in 1865 by Karolina Sandell-Berg, the "Fanny Crosby of Sweden". Take the time to listen to the words of this classic hymn rarely heard in churches anymore. The words are moving, powerful, and comforting, in great part due to Karolina going through a lifetime of physical frailty and enduring lasting sorrow due to her father's early death when he fell overboard the boat they were traveling in. He was such a strong support to her due to her physical limitations. We sung Day by Day in our service this last Sunday. Karolina provides tremendous lyrics born out of personal experience as she processed her grief through the Scriptures and then expressed herself in poetry. This song is for any season of life.

Yesterday was a special day for us as we celebrated our 48th wedding anniversary. We were traveling but still were planning to share a message. However we ended up staying in a rather unpleasant hotel and didn't want to stick around in the morning. (It was kind of a special experience since it reminded us of the motel we stayed in the first night of our honeymoon when we were very, very budget conscience.)

We had both committed our lives to Jesus in our teens and have sought to serve the Lord together in ministry since meeting in Bible College. In fact, apart from some of our childhood friends, there are few who know us apart from being a couple. We started dating early in college and just after our junior year in 1976 we began pastoring local churches together for the next 25 years. Since 2001 we have worked as chaplains together and in interim pastoral work. These messages are a joint effort. I provide the theological foundation, the initial writing and the tech support. Brooksyne corrects my spelling and grammar, adds adjectives to make our messages more colorful and makes clarification when needed to my writing. We are indeed a team when it comes to the dailyencouragement ministry.

For any who may be interested here are some photos we have shared before on our anniversary that includes some photos of our wedding. These are not new photos since we didn't take nearly as many photos in those days.

Our engagement photo was taken among the stately oaks at Central Bible College where we met our Freshmen year of college in 1973. Our first date was on Brooksyne's 18th birthday on October 21, 1973 when I invited her to church on a Sunday evening. At that time local churches sent buses to the campus to pick up students. As we waited on the bus, her old boyfriend and his mom showed up from Tulsa, (180 miles from campus)! Brooksyne was extremely surprised and embarrassed, but felt she must meet with them and jumped off the bus leaving me to go to church by myself on our very first date! We started dating again three months later. Brooksyne's note: I had broken off with my old boyfriend before I left for college, but I guess his mother thought a surprise visit on my birthday would patch things up, but fortunately (for me) it didn't. Stephen and I started going steady in early 1974, got engaged in the fall of 1975, married in the spring of '76.

Here we are walking down the church aisle as a newly married couple on May 8, 1976 in Sapulpa, Oklahoma. The wedding was held in the church where Brooksyne led Children's Church over the summer months when she wasn't attending CBC.
Click on photo to enlarge

This photo means a lot to me. I am introducing Brooksyne to Joe and Pauline Harding who had driven down from the Kansas City area to attend our wedding. Joe was my Sunday School teacher in my early teens when I was smart-mouthed, disrespectful and uninterested. I surely gave him lots of heartache. I have written about his impact on my life here.

David Simpson (shaking my hand) was the best man in our wedding. We have been friends since 1st grade and still maintain that friendship for over 60 years. Dave had a very successful business career in Springfield, MO. We saw him and his wife Sandy this last summer. My brother, Pat, in the background, conducted our wedding ceremony. Look at all that hair!

Back in our day it wasn't the custom to rent a limo but rather "decorate" the newly married couples car with shaving cream, cans tied to the back, etc. Well, instead of decorating our car they decorated Dave's mistakenly! It was also not the custom to have a full meal reception after the wedding. Dave wanted to take us out so on our way out of town we drove over to the Casa Bonita Mexican restaurant in Tulsa. Dave was all by himself in his decorated car. I'm sure people were wondering where is the groom going without his bride!

I was ordained on May 8, 1979 at a service in York PA. That was long before the proliferation of having photos of everything. I have long looked for a photo of me with Phillip Bongiorno, my district superintendent at that time but have never been able to find it. I was just 24 so I probably didn't look that much different than my wedding photo!

Pastor Bongiorno, prior to his conversion to Christ, had some mafia associations. He would often begin any message he preached with a brief testimony and inevitably wept as he shared it.

Standing in a long line with other ordinands, as I held my Bible and faced the congregation in 1979, the solemn ceremony and the solemn vows I took as a minister of the gospel has become a lasting memorable experience. Pastor Bongiorno didn't rush through the Scripture reading but carefully enunciated each phrase and sometimes a single word, pausing at times to let the thoughts sink in.

"I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry" (2 Timothy 4:1-5).

Above is a photo with Brother Bongiorno from a minister's picnic about seven years ago. He is now in his late-eighties and is still doing well.

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