COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A lawyer for a runaway Christian convert from Ohio who was also an illegal immigrant says the 18-year-old woman has gained permanent residency in the United States.

Kort Gatterdam, a lawyer for Rifqa Bary, said Tuesday the news means Bary can now start applying for a driver’s license, Medicaid coverage and college scholarships.

Gatterdam says Bary, a native of Sri Lanka, received her permanent residency card last week and can apply for citizenship in five years.

Bary had sought the green card as she argued in court she could not reunite with her Muslim parents, whom she alleged threatened her with harm for converting.

Jeremiah Thrown Into a Cistern

¹ Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jehucal ^[a] son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malkijah heard what Jeremiah was telling all the people when he said, ² “This is what the LORD says: ‘Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine or plague, but whoever goes over to the Babylonians ^[b] will live. He will escape with his life; he will live.’ ³ And this is what the LORD says: ‘This city will certainly be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon, who will capture it.’ ”

⁴ Then the officials said to the king, “This man should be put to death. He is discouraging the soldiers who are left in this city, as well as all the people, by the things he is saying to them. This man is not seeking the good of these people but their ruin.”

⁵ “He is in your hands,” King Zedekiah answered. “The king can do nothing to oppose you.”

⁶ So they took Jeremiah and put him into the cistern of Malkijah, the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah by ropes into the cistern; it had no water in it, only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.

⁷ But Ebed-Melech, a Cushite, ^[c] an official ^[d] in the royal palace, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern. While the king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate, ⁸ Ebed-Melech went out of the palace and said to him, ⁹ “My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all they have done to Jeremiah the prophet. They have thrown him into a cistern, where he will starve to death when there is no longer any bread in the city.”

¹⁰ Then the king commanded Ebed-Melech the Cushite, “Take thirty men from here with you and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies.”

¹¹ So Ebed-Melech took the men with him and went to a room under the treasury in the palace. He took some old rags and worn-out clothes from there and let them down with ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern. ¹² Ebed-Melech the Cushite said to Jeremiah, “Put these old rags and worn-out clothes under your arms to pad the ropes.” Jeremiah did so, ¹³ and they pulled him up with the ropes and lifted him out of the cistern. And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.

Zedekiah Questions Jeremiah Again

¹⁴ Then King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and had him brought to the third entrance to the temple of the LORD. “I am going to ask you something,” the king said to Jeremiah. “Do not hide anything from me.”

¹⁵ Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I give you an answer, will you not kill me? Even if I did give you counsel, you would not listen to me.”

¹⁶ But King Zedekiah swore this oath secretly to Jeremiah: “As surely as the LORD lives, who has given us breath, I will neither kill you nor hand you over to those who are seeking your life.”

¹⁷ Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “This is what the LORD God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, your life will be spared and this city will not be burned down; you and your family will live. ¹⁸ But if you will not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, this city will be handed over to the Babylonians and they will burn it down; you yourself will not escape from their hands.’ ”

¹⁹ King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Jews who have gone over to the Babylonians, for the Babylonians may hand me over to them and they will mistreat me.”

²⁰ “They will not hand you over,” Jeremiah replied. “Obey the LORD by doing what I tell you. Then it will go well with you, and your life will be spared. ²¹ But if you refuse to surrender, this is what the LORD has revealed to me: ²² All the women left in the palace of the king of Judah will be brought out to the officials of the king of Babylon. Those women will say to you:
” ‘They misled you and overcame you—
those trusted friends of yours.
Your feet are sunk in the mud;
your friends have deserted you.’

²³ “All your wives and children will be brought out to the Babylonians. You yourself will not escape from their hands but will be captured by the king of Babylon; and this city will ^[e] be burned down.”

²⁴ Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Do not let anyone know about this conversation, or you may die. ²⁵ If the officials hear that I talked with you, and they come to you and say, ‘Tell us what you said to the king and what the king said to you; do not hide it from us or we will kill you,’ ²⁶ then tell them, ‘I was pleading with the king not to send me back to Jonathan’s house to die there.’ ”

²⁷ All the officials did come to Jeremiah and question him, and he told them everything the king had ordered him to say. So they said no more to him, for no one had heard his conversation with the king.

²⁸ And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard until the day Jerusalem was captured.

Lord God through Jesus Christ Your Son, what would You like to see me do today?

CBN News Sr. Reporter

PARIS – Friday in Paris. A hidden camera shows streets blocked by huge crowds of Muslim worshippers and enforced by a private security force.

This is all illegal in France: the public worship, the blocked streets, and the private security. But the police have been ordered not to intervene.

It shows that even though some in the French government want to get tough with Muslims and ban the burqa, other parts of the French government continue to give Islam a privileged status.

An ordinary French citizen who has been watching the Islamization of Paris decided that the world needed to see what was happening to his city. He used a hidden camera to start posting videos on YouTube. His life has been threatened and so he uses the alias of “Maxime Lepante. ”

Lepante’s View

His camera shows that Muslims “are blocking the streets with barriers. They are praying on the ground. And the inhabitants of this district cannot leave their homes, nor go into their homes during those prayers.”

“The Muslims taking over those streets do not have any authorization. They do not go to the police headquarters, so it’s completely illegal,” he says.

The Muslims in the street have been granted unofficial rights that no Christian group is likely to get under France’s Laicite’, or secularism law.

“It says people have the right to share any belief they want, any religion,” Lepante explained. “But they have to practice at home or in the mosque, synagogues, churches and so on.”

Some say Muslims must pray in the street because they need a larger mosque. But Lepante has observed cars coming from other parts of Paris, and he believes it is a weekly display of growing Muslim power.

“They are coming there to show that they can take over some French streets to show that they can conquer a part of the French territory,” he said.

France’s Islamic Future?

If France faces an Islamic future, a Russian author has already written about it. The novel is called “The Mosque of Notre Dame, 2048,” a bestseller in Russia, not in France.

French publisher Jean Robin said the French media ignored the book because it was politically incorrect.

“Islam is seen as the religion of the poor people, so you can’t say to the poor people, ‘You’re wrong,’ otherwise, you’re a fascist,” Robin explained.

The book lays out a dark future when France has become a Muslim nation, and the famous cathedral has been turned into a mosque.

Whether that plot is farfetched depends on whom you ask. Muslims are said to be no more than 10 percent of the French population, although no one knows for sure because French law prohibits population counts by religion.

But the Muslim birthrate is significantly higher than for the native French. Some Muslim men practice polygamy, with each extra wife having children and collecting a welfare check.

“The problem of Islam is more than a problem of numbers,” said French philosopher Radu Stoenescu, an Islamic expert who debates Muslim leaders on French TV. “The problem is one of principles. It’s an open question. Is Islam an ideology or just a creed?”

“It doesn’t matter how many there are,” he aded. “The problem is the people who follow Islam; they’re somehow in a political party, which has a political agenda, which means basically implementing Sharia and building an Islamic state.”

In Denial or Fed Up

From the 1980s until recently, criticizing or opposing Islam was considered a social taboo, and so the government and media effectively helped Islam spread throughout France.

“We were expecting Islam to adapt to France and it is France adapting to Islam,” Robin said.

About the burqa controversy, one French Muslim man told a reporter that Europeans should respect Muslim dress. One Parisian woman wearing a headscarf said “the veil is in the Koran” and “we only submit to God and nobody else.”

But even if many government elites are in France are in denial over Islam, the people in the streets increasingly are not. Some have become fed up with what they see as the growing Islamization of France.

They’ve started staging pork and wine “aperitifs,” or cocktail parties in the street. They’re patriotic demonstrations meant to strike back against Islam.  Another national demonstration is planned for Saturday, Sept. 4.

A Warning to the West

The French parliament is expected to debate the burqa law in September. Jean-Francois Cope, president of the Union for a Popular Movement political party, has a warning for the West and for America.

“We cannot accept the development of such practice because it’s not compatible with the life in a modern society, you see,” he said. “And this question is not only a French question. You will all have to face this challenge. “

CBN News Sr. Reporter

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo — She’s not well known in the West, but she’s a rising star in Africa. Marie Olive Kabila is one of the youngest First Ladies on the continent. Her husband, President Jospeh Kabila, runs the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mrs. Kabila is a strong Christian. She’s using her belief in God to bring spiritual change to her country.

Rising Star

A Google search of her name brings up very little personal details. However, on the streets of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Marie Olive Kabila is a rock star of sorts. When she’s out in public, which is very rare, the crowds just can’t get enough of her.

She rarely does media interviews or speaks publicly.

Her participation in a recent Christian event drew national attention and came as a surprise to many in her country.

“People of God, this is a very special day for me,” declared a confident Mrs. Kabila from the pulpit.

A Call to Prayer & Fasting

In the small church on the east side of the capital city of Kinshasa, hundreds of people gathered recently as Mrs. Kabila declared three days of nationwide prayer and fasting.

“I am here to tell you that I will never be ashamed of my Lord’s name,” said Kabila. “We need Him desperately to heal our country.”

The Democratic Republic of Congo or DRC is what some would say cursed by its natural resources. It has everything — diamonds, copper, gold, cobalt, zinc, the list goes on. However, for all its riches, the DRC is a mess — politically, economically, socially and according to Mrs. Kabila, spiritually dying.

“Dear Father, our people are suffering we need you Lord,” Kabila said, trying to hold back the tears.

A Hurting Nation

According to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, more than 5 million people have died in the country since 1998 from famine, violence and disease.

Eastern Congo, home to the majority of the country’s wealth, is also ground zero of the worst war on the continent at the moment. Despite a peace agreement, government troops are still fighting to ward off rebel groups from taking control of the minerals. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced, and tens of thousands of women have been raped, tortured and mutilated.

“We have all the mineral wealth in the world. We are like the Promised Land, but we are flowing with death and destruction,” said a lady participating in the prayer and fasting campaign.

With the blessing of her husband, Mrs. Kabila launched a prayer campaign placing billboards in all the major cities. She took to the airwaves, pleading for her countrymen to join her. And the response was overwhelming.

For three days, Congolese around the country gathered in their churches.

“The First Lady is setting the example and calling us to pray for each other,” said a Congolese woman.

History in The Making

For someone who is shy, reserved and often shuns the public spotlight, it was the image of their First Lady raising her hands and crying out to God that touched so many people.

“The First Lady is a strong person of faith,” said Theodore Mugalu, who serves as the presidential couple’s spiritual advisor. “She knows that it is only through prayer that we can face the goliaths of our culture. That’s why these days are so important.”

Three days after launching the prayer and fasting campaign at a packed soccer stadium, tens of thousands of people gathered to worship and pray. Several of the country’s top Christian artists were on hand to perform.

It was a significant moment, because in the political history of the Democratic Republic of Congo, no sitting head of state has ever called for days of prayer and fasting.

“I want you to know that the president is supporting us today even though he is not here,” Kabila announced from the platform.

‘Walls of Jericho Are Falling’

Even though the large outdoor service marked the end of the three days of prayer and fasting, Mrs. Kabila urged her countrymen not to stop, but to keep praying.

“This is just the beginning,” the First Lady said. “We want to be set free from the devil and the evil spirits that ran to and fro our nation. I believe the walls of Jericho are falling. God is going to set our nation free.”

Once again, to the surprise of so many, the First Lady, accompanied by a famous Congolese Christian singer, ended the prayer campaign by singing — asking for the Spirit of God to fall upon her nation.

Israeli police put the number of worshippers at 160,000 to 170,000, while Muslim authorities said it exceeded 200,000.

“As in previous weeks, the police deployed 2,000 men around the mosque. They have not interfered, and the prayer has taken place with the utmost calm,” police spokesman Shmulik Ben Ruby said.

The sprawling mosque compound is the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina. It is also the holiest site in Judaism because it was the location of the Second Temple, razed by the Romans in 70 AD.

The compound is inside Jerusalem’s famed Old City in Arab east Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Six Day War and annexed in a move not recognised by the international community.

The fate of Jerusalem is one of the thorniest issues in the Middle East peace process, with Israel claiming the entire city as its capital and the Palestinians demanding east Jerusalem as the capital of their promised state.

As with past Fridays, Israel limited access to the compound to men over the age of 50, women over the age of 40 and children, and only granted visiting permits to a limited number of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank.

The site has frequently been the site of violence, most notably in 2000 when the second Palestinian uprising erupted after a visit to the compound by Ariel Sharon, a right-wing politician who went on to become Israel’s prime minister.

The holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast from dawn to dusk, is expected to end on September 9 or 10, depending on the sighting of the new moon.

The place here is Ephesus; that is on the western coast of Asia Minor, what we now call Turkey. It was then one of the great sea ports of the Mediterranean world, a great centre of Greek civilisation, a place of learning. But also, as the Greek world was sadly, a place of superstition, idol worship and magic, to which I drew attention in the reading. It was filled with the practice of magic and superstition.

When the apostle first came here he had an influence to the extent that a church was strengthened. I dare say there had been a little church before, but that church was strengthened through the ministry of the mighty apostle Paul. When Paul had to leave, he went by ship southbound to return to his own country of Palestine. When he came, however, the second time – as we saw in the second reading in Acts 19 – there is an immense influence of the Gospel in that pagan idolatrous city; so great an influence that demons were cast out. There was a furore because so much power from God was being poured upon the preaching of the apostle that multitudes of people who were locked up in the practice of magic and curious arts brought their books, we are told, books of magic of course, and they burnt them. It seems that they burnt them publicly, and the price of these books is told at 50,000 pieces of silver. Imagine how much money that was at the time. This meant that the principal superstition and false religion of the city was under attack, and you can imagine how that affected the devotees. “Great is Diana of the Ephesians” (Acts 19, 28), cried the silversmiths whose craft was endangered by the preaching of the apostle Paul.

However, in between those two visits God brought another preacher to Ephesus, and he is the one we are looking at tonight; his name is Apollos. I want to spend a little time considering this man and what we are told about him here: “A certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria [which is a large city in the north of Egypt], an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus” (text). God was doing a work at Ephesus, and when God does a work in any place He sends men to do it. He doesn’t send angels and He doesn’t do it without men; He sends godly men. The apostle had broken up a lot of the fallow ground and sowed gospel seed in it, and as he was to come a second time, as I said, he was to reap a great harvest of spiritual souls and conversions. But in between these two visits of the apostle God sends now another man, Apollos by name, also a Jew.

This evening in our study there are three things which we have time to consider. Let me tell you what they are. First, we are told here about the exemplary character and outstanding gifts of this man Apollos. Second, we are told about him that there was a serious defect in his understanding of the Word of God, and we are informed as to how this defect was put right. And thirdly, we are told that as a consequence of the correction which he received, and fuller instruction from Aquila and Priscilla, that his ministry was enriched and became still more powerful, so that he mightily convinced the Jews and that publicly, showing by the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. Let’s look then at those three things: his gifts and character, the defect and how it was corrected, and thirdly the increased power therefore of his own ministry.

One way in which the scriptures are valuable to us, amongst many others, is that they set before us men to be admired, men whom we should strive to emulate as to their character. Part of the secret of being a Christian is to have the right heroes. We should all be hero worshippers in the true sense; that is to say we should all choose for ourselves someone whom we strive to be like. Spurgeon always confessed that his great hero was Whitefield. Many have taken Luther, or Calvin, or Knox, but whoever you take as your personal hero, male or female, let it be someone like this man Apollos, worthy of our admiration. The reason why young people in this country have gone astray is because the Beetles became the great heroes in the 1960s, and the Beetles stood for what was worthless. Young people today are following what is worthless. Thank God there are many exceptions to that, but that’s the general rule and you know it to be true. Sports people, athletes, singers, pop groups, pop stars, these are the heroes of our age for the young, and it’s a terrible pity. If you have any influence with young people or children, in your family or out of it, try to get them to admire the right heroes. The Bible gives us these characters on the stage as it were of scripture that we might see the kind of person that God praises, and he praises a man like this Apollos. The reason why these men are praised by God is of course that we might ourselves love them, and admire them, and strive to be more like them.

Well what was there that was so eminent about this man? First, we are told that he was eloquent, an eloquent man. That is to say, he was a born speaker, he was a born preacher. Not all speakers and preachers could be said to be eloquent. The apostle Paul did not claim to be eloquent; even Moses did not claim to be eloquent. Moses said to God, “How then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircumcised lips” (Exodus 6, 12). He found it hard to speak. Aaron, seemingly, was a better speaker; and it looks as if Apollos was a better speaker than the apostle Paul. So, there are some preachers who are naturally good speakers, brilliant, powerful, it’s part of their natural gift, and Apollos was one of these. However, we must all of us strive to be as good speakers for Christ as we can. The gift of eloquence is distributed by God sovereignly; He gives it to whom He will. We can at least, if we are called upon in a public way to serve Christ, do our best to improve on our speech at least a little. We cannot make ourselves eloquent but we can correct some of the blemishes. We can cut out what we call ‘non words’. Do you know what they are? ‘Non words’ are the noises that people make sometimes when they are speaking publicly, which would be far better cut out. The ‘um’s’ and the ‘ah’s’ and these other noises we make, grunts and groans. So though we can’t make ourselves eloquent, there is something here which is an example to us to strive after if we are called upon to speak in any public way, to speak clearly and as correctly as we can.

The second thing we are told about this man is that he was “mighty in the scriptures” (text). This is far more important. Eloquence you either have or you don’t, but to be mighty in the scriptures is a wonderful attribute of any man or woman. It was the fruit of his love of God, and his love of the Word of God. He studied it. You don’t become mighty in the scriptures by accident. It doesn’t happen in between falling out of bed and putting on your clothes in the morning; it is a daily, yearly, life-long, diligent study of the holy Word of God – reading it, re-reading it, thinking about it, comparing it, talking about it, learning it, memorising it. Here is something which of course is set before us that we might all make a little progress. My dear, dear friends, we could all do more than we do, and I speak to myself first of all. I have a friend in America who does this on his way to work. He is not a minister, although he does preach as a layman and a good minister in that sense too. But he has a certain distance to travel to his work, in the train, and he is very disciplined. He spends much time reading his Greek New Testament and memorising portions of the Bible. I had another friend, I think he was in Liverpool, an Englishman and a Christian obviously. He had to walk to work and it took him about 35 minutes. He discovered that he could, in his memory, in his mind as he walked to work, go all the way through the Epistle to the Romans from start to finish. Of course he took a long time to get it right but he kept going over it, and going over it, and going over it, day by day, until eventually he was pretty good at it. That is something we are encouraged to do. Oh, my friends, this generation needs, more than almost anything, people who are mighty in the scriptures. Happy the congregations, happy the churches, happy the fellowships where believers strive to be mightier in the scriptures!

What else are we told about this man? We are told he “was instructed in the way of the Lord” (text). Why is that said? Well I think it’s this; you see it’s possible to know the Bible merely in the letter of it, but this man knew it in the power of it. He was instructed in the way of the Lord so as to worship God. He was a man in whose life the very scriptures breathed. As it was said about John Bunyan, if you pricked him anywhere, his blood was bibline. It was as though he was so full of the Bible, if you pricked John Bunyan, Bible blood would flow. I’m sure it was only a way of speaking, of course, but that was the way Apollos was, mighty in the scriptures, instructed in the way of the Lord, not simply theoretically but spiritually. Well now, is not this something wonderful for us to follow? Listen to this, “Being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord” (text). I think you would agree with me, it would have been an inspiration to have met this brilliant Christian man. He was a shining Christian and a wonderful speaker for God.

Second, notice, there was a defect in this man. At the end of verse 25 we are told that he knew only the baptism of John. Let me explain what that means. John the Baptist belonged to the Old Testament. He was the last and greatest of all the Old Testament prophets. He was even more than that; he was the forerunner to Jesus Christ. You could put it like this: he was the morning star of the New Testament – I think that’s a good phrase – but he wasn’t himself a New Testament man; he was the one who was described in scripture as the “friend of the bridegroom” (John 3, 29) – the best man, as we call him – to introduce the Bridegroom to the bride, that is Christ to his Church. But he himself was an Old Testament man, the greatest Old Testament man, said Christ, but still, for all that, an Old Testament man.

Apollos, coming from Alexandria in northern Egypt, evidently had been impressed by the teaching of John the Baptist, which somehow or other – we’ll never know in this life – had filtered down all the way to his native city of Alexandria. He had believed the doctrine of John the Baptist but he did not know the fullness of the New Testament revelation. He did not know the wonderful theology of Paul. He did not know the fullness of the Spirit, such as those who were fully of the New Testament church and revelation understood. Now my friends, there is something very important for us to learn here. I don’t hesitate to say that the purest and best form of the Christian faith is what we normally refer to as Calvinism, or the doctrines of grace – the fullest, the richest and the best. That was the view of the great B.B. Warfield, himself one of the greatest preachers, or at least theologians, who ever lived. The Westminster Confession of Faith enshrines Christianity at its very best, consisting of three things: wonderful doctrine; wonderful experience; wonderful practice – the working out of the Ten Commandments. These three things make up perfect Christianity, sound doctrine, rich personal experience of God, and a careful keeping of the Ten Commandments. All lesser, weaker forms of the Christian faith are a departure from Calvinism or the Reformed Faith. We meet many Christians who do not share our admiration for the doctrines of grace, or Reformed Faith as we call it, because, perhaps, they are ignorant of the privileges that we have.

Let me quickly mention four modern weaknesses in many Christians. The first one is a failure in many modern Christians to believe in the doctrine of the absolute sovereignty of God. You and I must try to help these people. That’s why there are so many books being produced by the Reformed part of the church: to correct the ignorance and the defective knowledge of so many Christians today. Let us promote these books, let us pass them on, and give them away, and sell them, and so on. This is the function of it: that people’s religion may be perfect and not deficient, because the case you see set before us here of this man Apollos was that he was an excellent men but, there was a defect in his understanding. It’s a very common phenomenon.

Another of these things is, in the modern Christian, a defect in people’s realisation that God from time to time sends wonderful spiritual revival. We’ve had this emphasis again and again – from my dear friend Mr Vernon Higham and his son Mr Dewi Higham, and many others. It’s a tremendous emphasis, and it is largely lost in this generation. People are just not believing it, just not hoping for it, just not praying for it. And of course, according to our faith, so it will be done unto us. We couldn’t do a better thing than to show people that God can change the face of a nation in a day; and if people don’t know that, they’ll never pray for it.

There’s another thing that we can do; we can show people that the so called ‘charismatic gifts’ were intended as signs of the New Testament age rather than things which were permanent for the end of the world. We could show them that the Day of Pentecost had things in it which were temporary, and things in it which were permanent. The temporary things, surely, were these outward gifts of tongues speaking and what not, but the permanent value of it is that the Spirit of God will be poured out again and again and again and again upon the Church on earth until Christ’s return. I say, we have much to do to correct people’s deficient understanding, and of course our own too.

How did Aquila and Priscilla go about this? They were in the synagogue, which is a Jewish word for a church, just like the one we are in. And this man Apollos, being a Jew, was preaching the Word of God, eloquently, in the synagogue. No doubt it was breathtaking to listen to this man. Amongst the people in the congregation there was this man and his wife – Aquila and Priscilla. He was a Jew and his wife no doubt too. They heard this preaching of Apollos and they were impressed by his wonderful flow of eloquence, but they detected there was a missing note. At that stage you and I would probably, on the way home, say to one another, “Tut, tut, what a pity that such a preacher had such a glaring mistake, such a glaring fault and defect in his ministry. Poor fellow, he couldn’t have gone to the right college.” But no, they didn’t do that, they didn’t criticise this man behind his back; they didn’t start a gossiping campaign against him. What they did was far, far more charitable. They said to Apollos, “Come sir, come. We enjoyed the sermon. Come home with us and take a meal. Let’s have fellowship together.” So they invited him to their own home, and there they explained to him: “…expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly” (text). You know, Aquila and Priscilla weren’t preachers, but they took upon themselves the responsibility of making a good preacher still better, and they did it privately, not only the man but the woman. It is legitimate within our own homes for the woman to speak. Let no one suppose that the woman is to be silent always; in her own home she may speak. And many woman, of course, are far better theologians than us men, and better in working out the gospel than we men are. Let them therefore feel free, in the context of a home and a house, to share together what they know. That’s what this man and his wife did. They explained: “Dear sir,” they said, something like this, “you know the great apostle Paul has been inspired to show us the fullness of the message. John the Baptist did great work up to that point in history, but there’s much more to be said. The Epistle to the Romans – and indeed to the Ephesians and the Corinthians – Paul was preaching all of this for years before he wrote it down.” They had heard the apostle; they were great admirers of the apostle; they loved him, they loved his preaching. They had the fullness of doctrine in themselves and they showed this eloquent man these things that they knew.

There are lessons, aren’t there, here? First of all, weren’t they discreet in what they did? Weren’t they charitable? Weren’t they kind? You can’t do another Christian a better service than to give them more light on the truth. You can’t do another Christian a better service than to win him over to a better knowledge of the counsel of God. Furthermore, wasn’t he a spiritual man? You can imagine some creatures and they were beyond their dignity: “Wait a minute,” they would say, “I thought this was an invitation for a meal; you’re beginning to preach to me. Do you know who I am? I am Doctor So-and-so! You keep your mouth shut when you speak to me about religion. I have been a student of theology all my life. I am mighty in the scriptures. Who are you – just a woman!” No, no, he didn’t say that. He was delighted to learn from any source that could teach him, and so should you and I be. We can learn from a little child; we can learn from a lady; we can learn from anyone. Spurgeon learnt his theology from his cook, he said. When he was a schoolteacher as a young man, there was a cook at the school and she was a thorough theologian, a great reader of the Bible and of books, and she taught Spurgeon, on the side, his theology – he said so. He never went to a college, he tried to but it never worked out. Of course he was just a born genius, a great and wonderful man, but he learned his theology from a cook! You and I must be humble enough to learn theology from a cook or whoever, as this good man was. He learned the fuller way of truth from this couple who gave him hospitality. They expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. Are you humble like that? Pray God I may be. We must humble ourselves to learn the truth from anyone who can teach.

Thirdly, notice the increased power and influence which attended the ministry of this good man Apollos as a consequence of his learning the fuller way: “And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia [that means the south of Greece, places like Corinth and south of there], the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him: who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace” (v.27). You see he helped them greatly. It’s a wonderful thing to help the people of God to a fuller appreciation of the riches and of the treasures of truth, and that’s what he was doing. Not only that, but he went into the synagogue, evidently, and he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly, showing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ. He convinced them that their Messiah was none other than the Jesus of Nazareth whom their forefathers had crucified, indeed their contemporaries had crucified. This was the focus of his ministry.

Oh dear friends, we are needing men like this to rise up in society at all levels: of government that they will stand up in the House of Commons or at Holyrood or in Cardiff and say: “Men and brethren, we can’t bring in these wicked laws. There is a God in heaven who rules and has commanded us to live in such a style.” They would silence and shut the mouths of wicked men. We need men like that in schools who will fill our children’s minds with godly learning, as used to be the case, till Britain again would be a mission-sending country and send out young men and women to the ends of the earth. Of course, supremely, we are needing men like this in pulpits. Oh, you couldn’t do a better thing for your own soul and the souls of others than to study the scriptures and theology night and day, that we might become just a little more mighty in the scriptures.

I must close, but I set before you this dear faithful and good man. Scripture places him, as it were, on a pedestal before us, that we might admire the grace of God given to him, and the truth which he was able to assimilate and to teach to the people. Remember this teaching and preaching is the only thing which will break up the godlessness of this world, nothing else will do it. And if teaching and preaching doesn’t do it, you may be sure nothing else at all will. That is why this man was set before us. He is the case of a man whose whole life, like Paul, being filled with the Spirit of God and of truth, was a beam of heavenly glory to light us on the way to heaven.

At times, she has been described as nothing more than a glorified maid.

But that is not who God says is more valuable than precious jewels.

That is not the standard that He has given you to aspire to.

Who Can Find a “Chayil” Woman?

The word “chayil” is what God uses to describe His idea of a real woman.

You have probably always heard it translated as the “virtuous woman.”

But it means so much more.

The Amplified Bible gets a bit closer to the heart of the matter by describing her as a “capable, intelligent, and virtuous woman” (Proverb 31:10 AMP).

That sounds better, but, it is still not quite what God has in mind for the woman He has destined you to become.

The Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary explains that the term “chayil” was used to describe great forces and armies. A woman said to be “chayil” would possess a certain strength, might, and power!

If you were a man going out to fight the good fight of faith, doesn’t that sound like someone you would want fighting on your side?

The Proverb 31 Woman is no wimp. She is a woman of great strength!

A Strong Christian Woman-
Isn’t that An Oxymoron?

Living in the 21st century, we can sometimes get a skewed idea of what a strong woman is.

Is she the woman who always speaks her mind and doesn’t need anyone’s help?

The one who runs her household and is convinced that, if she lets her husband do it, he would just mess everything up?

Or is she the corporate tycoon who only has one child because she refuses to be distracted from her career?

Proverb 31 reveals what your Heavenly Father considers to be true strength.

As He describes this woman, He says that:

Strength and dignity are her clothing
and her position is strong and secure…
- Proverb 31:25 (AMP)

Wouldn’t you love for your Heavenly Father to say that about you. That is what we all want, right?

But, we are not fighting against flesh and blood in this life. So the strength that you will need to accomplish God’s will is not carnal (Ephesians 6:12).

Being able to work 60+ hours and still make time to keep the house clean and cook dinner is not where your true strength and value lies.

Jesus taught this same truth to Martha over two thousand years ago. But it is just as true today.

…a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.”But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”
- Luke 10:38-42 (NLT)

The woman God describes in Proverb 31 understands this.

She girds herself with strength [spiritual, mental, and physical fitness
for her God-given task]…
- Proverbs 31:17 (AMP)

How much time do you spend girding yourself spiritually for the daily tasks that God gives you? Time sitting at His feet, just like Mary did.

Sometimes, it’s easy to be so busy running around doing things for God, that you forget all He really wants is your heart.

As I explained in our online Bible class on Living in the Spirit and experiencing constant fellowship with God, God’s desire from the beginning of time has been to walk and talk with you in the cool of the day. For His presence to be your constant source of comfort and strength, and His voice your ever present counsel.

You hear many wives complain that their husbands spend so much time at work trying to provide for them, that they have little to no time to spend with the family. These wives say they would rather have time alone with the one they love, than have them constantly working – Even though they are working for them.

God feels the same way about you. He would rather have time alone with the one He loves, than all of your work – Even when the work you are doing is really for Him.

It is only in that time alone communing with you that He can give you the strength that you will need to be the woman He designed you to be.

It is in the time you spend laying at His feet in fellowship with Him that your Father can truly clothe you in strength and dignity.  If you feel God calling you to a place of constant fellowship and communion with Him, I would highly recommend our online Bible Class, Living In The Spirit.  It will guide you step by step into a place where you can experience more of God’s presence in your daily life, and hear His voice guiding you throughout each day.