Faith of our Fathers Pt. 2

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In this new segment of our series which we are calling, ‘Faith of our Fathers”, we have turned to the church in Ephesus as an example of and a call to – live by faith.

We probably know more about this church than any other in the New Testament.

• Paul ministered there for 3 years
• Aquilla and Priscilla stayed after Paul left
• Then Paul sent Timothy there to establish elders
• Then Paul visited the pastors of this church at the end of his 3rd missionary journey encouraging them to solidify this church in sound doctrine.
• Finally they were the 1st of the churches Jesus addresses His letters to the 7 churches of Asia.

These precious believers had suffered many hardships over the years and in Ephesus they were outnumbered by pagan citizens nearly 99 to 1.

The pastors Paul addressed, did their job well solidifying their roots in sound doctrine, but along they way they abandoned the intensity and passion of the love for Christ they possessed at the first.

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Captivating Song Solomon

Captivating

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Chapter 7 is largely yet another wasf – a praising of the physical body of the Shulamite employing the use of vivid imagery – most of which is in fact largely time sensitive and culturally dependent. One thing is clear, these two are entirely captivated by each other!

This is the 4th wasf of the entire book.

Three in total are from Solomon to the Shulamite at various stages of their relationship from courtship to marriage. Song of Solomon is Chiastic in structure and so even though these ending chapters are folding back in on, and revisiting key points from the beginning of the narrative, it does so through the now familiar lens of having already been wed. As such, even though none of the descriptions of Solomon to the Shulamite were altogether “PG” material, this last one borders on an “R” rating.

It is important towards understanding the Song of Solomon to realize that it is written almost entirely from the Bride’s perspective. Solomon is depicted as praising her beauty 3 times to her face. While the Shulamite only praises Solomon’s handsomeness once and that was to her maidens – not to Solomon.

One of the takeaways of this is the fact that – just like our relationship with God, He is very verbal of His love, devotion and desire for us and while we do in fact praise His attributes as well, we tend to do so more to others as we commune with our siblings in Christ or in our testimony of Him before the world. Also, while we do in fact delight in Him, our greatest joy comes from His delighting in us. It is our pleasure to exist for His pleasure and in this way human relationships between the sexes mirror this reality – and such was the design of God.

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Faith early church

Faith of our Fathers Pt. 1

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Today we are adopting a new approach to our study in faith. As we have learned faith is just another way to say trust in relationship – relational trust. As such it is always exercised TOWARDS God, not FOR things or outcomes. Because faith springs from and works toward relationship with God, it always causes growth in that relationship. The Bible often refers to this a bearing fruit unto maturity in Christ. Which is to say we become more and more like, the God we come to know and trust.

Trust in God is one of the most intimidating things to the devil. In fact, the scriptures tell us that it is in order to tempt us away from trust that all temptation comes in the first place. As such, all of the examples, stories and letters in the New Testament are largely focused upon our trust in God in the face of the enemy’s opposition against us. So today we cast our glance back to the successes and failures addressed in the New Testament.

We began with the success we see in the fledgling church found in Acts 2:42 and then turned to the last things Jesus said in correction to the churches that arose from those humble beginnings.

In order for Revelation chapters 2 & 3 to make proper sense, we need the backdrop and the cipher supplied to us by Jesus Himself in the first chapter – so that is where we spent the bulk of our time.

The stars are the angels of God to the churches. They are firmly held in the power of the authority of His right hand. Also, Jesus walks among the golden lampstands which represent the churches. These are very important imageries and will help to keep us grounded in our studies of the faith of these early Asian churches.

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Reveling

Reveling

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Before moving forward with chapter 6, we went back and revisited the “dream” of chapter 5 using David Guzik’s understanding of those verses. I did this not because I believe it to be the best interpretation of that segment, but because it added to our study something I found truly impactful and important which did not go beyond what was possible in the text.

As we progressed through chapter 6 we applied both our interpretations and brother Guzik’s of the “dream” in chapter 5 to see what truths it would address and uncover for us and I feel we were the better for it.

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