Thursday, May 1, 2014

Epistleless in Ephesus

Speechless. A unique moment in time and space.

28 years ago this week:  "This week and next we are going to be studying chapter 2, verse 8 of Ephesians" said Pastor Steve Brown at Key Biscayne Presbyterian Church.  "For it is by grace you have been saved, and not by works, lest any man boast"

Whatever. I'm here in the back waiting for Simone to get out of church. And isn't Christianity all about don't do this and don't do that and hell and stuff? Whatever.

Simone and I didn't hit it off (I remember her name because I heard shortly thereafter that she was diagnosed with MS and quickly died) but the next Sunday I remembered the cool room, the deep voice. The puzzling message, so I returned.

This is what I've been trying to tell you all along sang my heart. Jesus died for ....me?  God loves me as much as Daddy???? No way.  Well, MAYBE!  That day I asked Jesus to enter my life and be my King.

And it started from a sentence a guy named Paul wrote to his friends in Ephesus. Those friends in Ephesus would come to include John before he was exiled by Domitian to work in a rock quarry on Patmos. And Mary, Jesus' mom.

A quarter of a million people lived here - the second largest Roman city. The library here (photo) rivaled Alexandria and the Egyptians stopped selling papyrus to stop it's growth. The industrious Romans switched to animal skins - parchment - and to keep them together as written, later bound on edge: books!

Ephesus. Wow, I'm walking where two men lived who personally knew Jesus, who wrote about him, whose writings survived the first thousand years and now teach me what they knew. Ephesus!

2 comments:

  1. Wow! Fourty three years ago on April 14 I sat cross legged on a carped square in a garage in Chamblee. The leader, Mike Shaffer sat on a stool and quoted the same verse. Then he took out a dollar bill and put it in his bible as he quoted Philippians 3:9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:. That same voice screamed the same words in me that it screamed in you, "This is what I've been trying to tell you all along." Five years ago the bibles study held a reunion at the house with the garage. Several of us were standing in the garage talking when one person said "This is exactly where I was sitting when I trusted Christ as my savior. I looked down and shivered. I was standing exactly where I'd been sitting that night. In fact everyone was were they had been sitting. It was stunning. Anyway, I'm glad you listened to that Spirit.

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  2. Oh yeah, and 10 years ago on April 14 I was sitting in a consultation room being told that I had cancer. That same Spirit was in the room with me.

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