Faith early church

Faith of our Fathers Pt. 5

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Sound Doctrine, Sound Doctrine, Sound Doctrine… the need to be devoted to Sound Doctrine, its study, its eager examination and investigation was a primary focus of the early church. In fact it was FIRST in the list of 4 things the early church focused upon without ever even being told to – they were compelled from within by the Holy Spirit of God. The other things were THE fellowship (koinonia) of the brethren, the breaking of bread (including communion) from house to house and THE prayers.

We’ve been examining the Ephesian church in view of Jesus’ warning that He would remove their church if they did not repent (change their minds) and do the FIRST WORKS, by which Jesus was speaking of placing their love for Him as #1 in their lives in chronology and priority. These believers had their Sound Doctrine down, but their love life had been neglected. In our study of the Ephesian church AND the initial church found in Acts 2, we have uncovered the need for every believer to continue with the ardent strength of their first love for Christ and to allow THAT, along with their reverence for Him to generate a passion and urgency to study His words to be sound in doctrine.

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Solomon Ecclesiastes vain fleeting

Solomon’s initial thoughts… Vain of just Fleeting?

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As we open the book of Ecclesiastes, we once again tack down Solomon as the author whether he was the one who compiled it into a “book” or whether it this was done at a later date.

We then spent some time with the word ‘Vanity’ which has a fundamentally different meaning in the Hebrew, but which is most often translated as ‘vanity’. We explored the other relevant nuances of the word which will help us as we continue through the book since in only 12 chapters it is mentioned 38x’s.

Finally we talked about Solomon’s outlook on life as being both fleeting and in the end meaningless. But this was largely both due to the way in which he largely wasted his life on godless pursuits and the fact that this was written in his older age looking back over those choices with regret.

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Faith early church Unscripted

Faith of our Fathers Pt. 4

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This week in our study of the 1st letter of Jesus to the churches in Asia – that of Ephesus.

We established the meanings of the two key words regarding their future judgment if they failed to repent which were “quickly” and “remove”. These English words may not be as clear a representation of what was said, it one might think.

Then we spent the rest of our time looking at the way the first believers – those coverts following Peter’s preaching at Pentecost since their love for Christ was fresh and strong – which is what Ephesus was lacking. We found that without a “script” to go by, they all unanimously found themselves – DEVOTING TEHMSELVES to – the teachings, the fellowship, the Lord’s Supper & THE prayers. The result was the reverential fear and awe of God fell on them all and they found favor in the eyes of the onlooking world.

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Introduction Ecclesiastes

Introduction to Ecclesiastes

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This introduction is intended to provide an overview of the book, including the:
• Title
• Time Period
• Author
• Key words and phrases
• Purpose
• Solomon’s goals and method
• Key steps in the progression of the book
• Conclusion

One primary key to the book is understanding that in clear distinction to the rest of humanity, Solomon was “gifted” wisdom and as such it could not be lost or forfeited. The results in Ecclesiastes being a very valuable book indeed. For though Solomon lived a good portion of his life in futile pursuits which affected his take away of the things he learned, his wisdom still enabled him to see clearly what was happening as a result of his choices.

“So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me.” – Ecc. 2:9

This places Solomon in perhaps, one of the most unique positions of anyone in all of human history, save Jesus Himself! It also gives a transcendence to the value of his insights which otherwise would have been distorted through the deceptiveness of sin.

We noticed that there were two directions this book was taking. Solomon’s purpose in writing and God’s purpose in having Solomon write it – which were two very different reasons indeed, but which merge at the end of the book into one very concise and simple statement!

We are approaching this book of Ecclesiastes from the perspective that it is an entire inspired book which is dedicated to expanding on the lesson of the manna, which is that,
“Man cannot live by bread alone, but by every word which PROCEEDS out of the mouth of God.” – Deut. 8:3

Possessing a knowledge of these things BEFORE diving into this book will prepare the reader to be properly oriented to the direction and purpose of the book so as to take away from our studies as much as possible. The most important thing being a better understanding of God in Christ and our relation to Him in trust as is the force and focus of all scripture!

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Faith early church

Faith of our Fathers Pt. 3

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This week we bore down hard on the warning and encouragement of Jesus to the church of Ephesus.

Key words were:
• Remember
• Repent
• Love
• Remove

All of this was spoken directly by Jesus to this precious church. He was saying…
• Remember the passion you possessed for Me at the beginning
• Change you mind (heart) about this and return to what you have neglected
• Love Me with ALL your heart – put Me first both in Chronology AND Priority
• If you fail to do this, I will remove your church (not physically, but Heaven will no longer recognize it and I, as your Chief Shepherd, will no longer walk among you.)

It is important to note that Jesus did NOT say, “You no longer love Me at all”. These Ephesian believers did in fact love Christ, it is just that over time and with the emphasis placed almost entirely upon sound doctrine, they grew (through neglect) to love Him less.

The coals were still hot, but the fire had died.

This represents a very rough outline of ALL that was covered, but we only truly expanded upon the need to remember and what kind of love the Ephesian church came to neglect in their relationship with Him.

We ended with the cliffhanger regarding living out this passionate love for Christ:
“How IS this accomplished?”

We will revisit this and move forward with the answer next week!

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