Faith early church

Faith of our Fathers Pt. 3

Posted on by

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!

Continue reading→
Come Beloved Rapture Solomon

Come away My Beloved

Posted on by

This last chapter chiastically connects largely with chapter 1 visiting their initial courtship as well as the difficulties the Shulamite had with her brothers.

It is completely or nearly completely (depending on how you view some verses) from the bride’s perspective.

Arguably the most famous phrase in the entire book of Song of Solomon is found in this chapter going like this”

“Set me like a seal upon your heart, like a signet on your arm. For love is as strong as death, passion is as unrelenting as the grave. Its flames burst forth, it is a blazing flame!  

Many waters cannot quench love; floodwaters cannot overflow it. If someone were to offer all his possessions to buy love, the offer would be utterly despised.”

This is a passionate portrayal of the love between Solomon and his bride as well as that which exists between Christ and His bride.

We wrapped up the chapter by observing the tight connection between it’s last few verses and those from Jesus to the church at the end of Revelation. The heart cry of both Holy Spirit and the bride is “Come” to which Jesus replies, “Behold I am coming suddenly.”

This is where we derived the title for this message – “Come away My Beloved”!

Continue reading→
Faith early church

Faith of our Fathers Pt. 2

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading→
Captivating Song Solomon

Captivating

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading→