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Ephesians: Read it through in different versions

This week in church we introduced the book of Ephesians for summer study.  Let me tell you, if you do the work and explore deeply the message that the Apostle Paul has for us in this message, I think you are in for one of the most marvelous experiences of your life.

As we begin this study in the book of Ephesians, I would like to invite you to read this letter through during the week. Read it through in different versions.  You can get various versions online at:

 

            www.biblegateway.com

 

Let the truth of this book come to you new each time you read it.  I truly believe that if you will do this faithfully as we go through our study in church, you will be a renewed person, and even find yourself  awestruck at times

Ephesians: A Meaningful Part of Your Summer Studies

In the book of Ephesians Paul sums up the whole sweep of God’s truth in some beautiful ways.  This book has changed my life again and again over the years. 

 
It is from this book that I have gained my whole sense of what it means to be the church.  We are not a rigid institution of Christendom, but a warm fellowship, a family, the body of Christ, a place where Christ’s love meets your life. 

 

It is from this book that I have learned about sexuality, and relationships, and the most intimate of all relationships, the bond of marriage.

 

From this book, I get my sense of what it means to be a man of God, what it means to relate to my wife, and how I am to be a father to my children.

 

It is in this book that I have found help for understanding the turbulence that often swirls in my soul, bringing fear, or anxiety, or doubt.

 

This Sunday we will be begin our look at this Awesome book.  As we celebrate the beginning of the summer season this memorial day, I invite you to welcome the book of Ephesians as a meaningful part of your summer studies.

Riches in Christ: Ephesians

This week we begin a new series of messages about our Riches in Christ.  We will be looking at the book of Ephesians.

Listen to what John McKay, A past president of Princeton Seminary, says of this book:

 

I can never forget … the reading of this Pauline letter when I was a boy.  [It had] a more decisive influence upon my thought and imagination than …any piece of literature. The romance of the part played by Jesus Christ in making my personal salvation possible, and in mediating God's cosmic plan, so set my spirit aflame that I laid aside, in all ecstasy of delight, Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo, which I happened to be reading at the time. …  The Christ who was, and is, became the passion of my life. … [and] the years that have followed have been but a footnote to that encounter.

 

I think that if we lay aside a summer romance novel or some other pulp fiction, if we turn off Comedy Central or HBO for a while, and we listen to the timeless message of God’s cosmic plan that is described in the book of Ephesians, there can be some awesome results.

 

If you feel the need for change in your life, or to be healed from a hurt, or to gather new perspective for living, or to be ignited by a meaningful passion, this book is for you.  You may want to take a look at the first chapter before you come to church.  The message in this book can be a tremendous source in helping Christ’s love meet your life.

Istanbul

Today we arrive in Istanbul and stay with our friend Tim. Istanbul was called Byzantium in the 7th century B.C., was named Constantinople in 326 A.D. by Constantine the Great who made it the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. Then in 1453 Mehmet II gave Istanbul it’s current name. 

In Istanbul, we will visit several of Turkey’s most famous churches, museums and mosques. St. Sophia was built by Roman Emperor Justinian and was completed in 537 A.D. It was the greatest Christian church in the world for more than 1000 years.  Topkapi Palace was first built by Mehmet the Conqueror in 1453 and was the home of the sultan until the 19th century. The Blue Mosque was commissioned by Sultan Ahmet in 1603 and was constructed with the deliberate intention of rivaling the St. Sophia.

Cappadocia

We are scheduled to arrive in Cappadocia today. This is the heart of Modern day Turkey.  Here visitors can see the Whirling Dervishes practicing their unique form of mysticism.   We will plan to go to Derinkuyu where ancient people from 3 to 4,000 years ago started carving layers of living quarters into the bedrock connected by catacombs.  These floors are separated by huge wheels that could be moved by a lever to close the passage.  This allowed these underground fortresses to remain impenetrable and gave security to the early Christians and other occupants of these underground cities, some serving populations as many as 15,000.   These cities were mentioned first in the book “Anabassis”, march of the 10,000 Greek mercenaries on their way to Persia in 400 B.C. written by Xenephon.   In the region of Cappadocia, a 10,000 square mile area, there are 1,000 churches carved by early and later Christians.  About 100 of them still have frescoes from the Old and the New Testament.