“Every day, they met together in the temple and ate in their homes. They shared food with gladness and simplicity.” Acts 2:46 CEB The professor was teaching art appreciation at the college level. She was working to inspire students to appreciate the various paintings and sculptures throughout history. Some were very beautiful and very interesting. Some didn’t really catch the attention of the students at all—I know because I was one of them. The most interesting part of the whole class was the professor’s project. She was a photographer and had been working on a project centered around meals. She had been taking photographs of tables following the meal in which she had partaken. As a student I found value in appreciating all the art about which we learned. However, I was intrigued with the professor’s work and it still sits with me to this day. As someone who is pretty social, I love sharing meals with people and discussing life around the table. The aftermath of the meal was a wonderful idea to me and a great way to express some of what took place at the table. In most of our meals, a lot takes place at the table. In the second chapter of The Book of Acts there is a description of the early church. I love this part of Scripture and the picture it paints. Whenever I read this description of the early church I think of the way they did life together. They spent a lot of time together. They learned together, went to church together, and shared their meals together. They were in each other’s homes and shared food with gladness and simplicity. Can you imagine the stories they shared around the table? I am certain there would have been stories about what Jesus did, stories about what the Apostles were doing, and stories of all those who were coming to faith. The meals had more to do with faith than food. The time together was deepening their faith. These meetings and meals were growing the church. I am sure there was a lot of laughter and celebration. These meals were vitally important to the growth of a movement, a community, and the Church. The most important aspect of the meals the early church shared was time. Time is perhaps a person’s most important commodity. In life you get so many hours to make an impact. It is important to spend our time well. Acts 2 teaches us that it is important to be intentional with our time. Spending time together with people who are most important in our life will make an impact. Spending time together impacts our relationship with God, each other, and the community. This is true especially when we are spending time together to intentionally do God’s work and will. The question every believer needs to ask is, “Am I spending time together with people to grow the church?” The purpose of Acts 2 was to show how the church was growing rapidly because of the focused and intentional actions of the first disciples. Spending time together is vitally important. In the same way, spending time together in our marriage relationship (and all relationships) is vitally important. By spending time together, we grow in our understanding of each other, we grow in our faith with each other, and we find our common purpose. Spending time together in marriage helps us appreciate each other and be more intentional with our life together. Some of the most significant conversations in our marriage have taken place at the dinner table over a shared meal. We cannot overestimate the importance of spending time together building our relationship. Spending time together every day is vital to our marriages. May you find time today to spend together building your marriage. If you are not married, may you find time building your relationships with friends and family. This Sunday we continue the message series Building A Better Marriage. We will discuss what it means to build a better marriage by spending time together. If you’re single, I promise that you will be able to apply the principles we will discuss to your life. I hope you will join us. The best is yet to come at St. Andrew’s and I can’t wait to see you in church!