Walk Thru the Book of Ephesians (Walk Thru the Bible Discussion Guides) , livre ebook

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38 pages

English

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Christians all over the world trust Walk Thru the Bible to help them deepen their spiritual lives through a greater understanding of God's Word. Now Walk Thru the Bible is launching its own small group Bible study series that will uncover the richness of the Scriptures. Each guide explores a book of the Bible or a prominent Bible character, offering rich insights and practical life application.These discussion guides are perfect for Bible study groups, Sunday schools, small groups, and individuals who want a deeper understanding of books of the Bible and heroes of the faith.About the seriesChristians all over the world trust Walk Thru the Bible to help them deepen their spiritual lives through a greater understanding of God's Word. Now Walk Thru the Bible is launching a new inductive Bible study series with Baker Books that will uncover the richness of the Scriptures. Each guide explores a book of the Bible or a prominent Bible character, offering rich insights and practical life application. These discussion guides are perfect for Bible study groups, Sunday schools, small groups, and individuals who want a deeper understanding of books of the Bible and heroes of the faith.

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New Testament

Philosophie et théologie

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Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	01 août 2009
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781441234957
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0230€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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A Walk Thru the Book of
EPHESIANS
Real Power for Daily Life
Walk Thru the Bible
2009 by Walk Thru the Bible Published by Baker Books a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.bakerbooks.com
E-book edition created 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-for example, electronic, photocopy, recording-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-4412-3495-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Scripture is taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version . NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
The internet addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers in this book are accurate at the time of publication. They are provided as a resource. Baker Publishing Group does not endorse them or vouch for their content or permanence.
Cover image: choongmin63 / iStock
Contents
Introduction
Session 1 The Way and the World
Session 2 A Greater Power
Session 3 Undivided
Session 4 Organic Construction
Session 5 Life in the Light
Session 6 The Body s Heartbeat
Session 7 A Higher Power
Session 8 Rekindle
Conclusion
Leader s Notes
Bibliography
Introduction
There s still a copy of the ticket on the wall of the den. It s framed and a little dusty but prominently displayed. Ken s windfall seven years ago wasn t a huge amount by lottery standards, but it was enough to get him out of a hole-for a time. He keeps another copy of the ticket in his wallet. It reminds him that at least on one beautiful day long ago, he was very lucky. And who knows? Maybe it will bring him luck again.
Lisa looks in the mirror every day and tells herself how beautiful she is. Some days she sounds like she almost believes it. But even when she doesn t, she makes the words come out of her mouth anyway. People will see you the way you see yourself, someone once told her. She hopes that s true, so she practices seeing herself differently than she ever has.
Matt has been mail ordering an expensive cologne-or, as the ad called it, a pheromone-enhanced product for men. He might as well, he figures. His looks and personality haven t won him any dates in over a year. Something has to work. Maybe this is it.
Christine is worried about her future. Will she find a job? A nicer apartment? Or, most importantly, a husband? She could probably wait for the first two to unfold on their own, but the third . . . well, she s desperate to know. And the number for that psychic hotline seems to show up on TV at oddly coincidental times-like when she s been thinking about her future and a phone is nearby. She s starting to wonder if it s worth a try.
Alan has been putting a huge prayer request before the Lord for three years. He s been very persistent and, by no choice of his own, very patient. Sometimes he thinks the waiting has been ordained by God, and sometimes he just thinks he must have blown it somewhere along the way. Maybe, he says to himself, if I become as holy as a Christian is supposed to be, God will answer. So he vows never to sin again if God will grant his request. And weekly, even daily, he s reminded that he doesn t measure up.
What do all these people have in common? They all want life to be better, and they re convinced-or want to be convinced- that a certain technique will make it so. These people aren t unusual; they represent nearly all of us in one way or another. Some of our techniques are superstitious, others mental, some mostly or partially rooted in Scripture, some thoroughly godly, and others thoroughly pagan. We have rituals, habits, tricks, routines, formulas, and all sorts of other means to influence a situation.That s because we feel out of control, and we re desperate to have some semblance of mastery over our circumstances. Mostly we re just trying to get by in a frustrating world.
Human beings are full of questions: What does my future hold? Who will protect me and provide for me? How can I find the truth? Does truth even exist? When we feel confused, we search for answers. And when we feel beaten down-by adverse circumstances, by the forces of fate, or simply by the unpredictable movements of everyday life-we appeal to whatever sources of help we can find. History is littered with such appeals, from the mundane to the mystical: halfhearted superstitions, good-luck charms, psychological tricks, ritual prayers and sacrifices, magical blessings and curses, mantras, horoscopes, and on and on. Trapped in the confines of a material world, we seek access to whatever s behind it. Something in us craves an alternative to our very inadequate resources. We re frustrated by our limitations, and we hunger for supernatural help.
That was certainly true in cultures of the Roman Empire, and it s just as true today. Times change, but the needs of the human heart don t. We may not appeal to the same range of gods and goddesses once revered in Greco-Roman society, but we have our ways of trying to manipulate cosmic forces too. We like to be in control or at least to have the illusion of control. The urge to take matters into our own hands is almost irresistible. So our world is still full of rituals aimed at achieving a desired result, of offerings made in exchange for divine favor, of sacred plea bargains intended to sway heavenly sympathies. And, more often than we d like to think, these are empty appeals.
One of the strongest messages in Ephesians is that there s a right way to satisfy our urge for supernatural power to help us in the circumstances of life, and it s more powerful and effective than we might think. We don t have to live in frustration and futility anymore. Though we have long lived in a murky, confused, rebellious environment-a world separated from its Creator by its own counterfeit pursuits-our connection with our Father has been restored through the grace and the exaltation of his Son. We are no longer alienated from God or each other; we can have deep fellowship in his Spirit. We are redeemed for so much more than we ve experienced in the past.
If you ve ever felt like someone groping in darkness for any hint of light; if you ve ever felt powerless to face the assault on your life by the world around you; if you ve ever longed for a deeper connection with your heart s true home; then the book of Ephesians will have life-altering implications for you. Its truths take us out of our own limitations, seat us at the right hand of the ultimate Father, and bestow on us the family name. We ve been given an entirely new wardrobe-the clothes of the kingdom of light-and empowered with all we could ever need. Our call for help has been answered.
Ephesus
Ephesus, situated on the western coast of what is now Turkey, was an enormous city-third in population behind Rome and Alexandria-that functioned essentially as the capital of the Roman Empire s Asian provinces, even though it technically was a free city independent of Rome. It was established by Greeks about 1,000 BC and survived a variety of empires-Greek, Persian, and Seleucid-before evolving into a vital Roman financial and cultural hub. As with large cosmopolitan areas today, its philosophies and trends influenced all of Asia Minor. That s one reason Paul may have spent so much time there-nearly three years, according to Acts. He knew that the impact of the gospel in such a cultural epicenter would certainly determine its impact in the region as a whole.
Though the worship of pagan gods and goddesses and the practice of magic were common throughout the empire, Ephesus was widely known as a petri dish for the magical arts and a nerve center for pagan devotion. It had an ample supply of various temples and shrines. The temple of Artemis (or Diana, her Roman name) was the main attraction-it drew devotees from across the empire-but Artemis worship, along with Roman paganism in general, involved a wide range of activities including magic spells, astrology, exorcism, and more. Artemis was considered the supremely powerful deity over cosmic forces; in order to get along in an environment swirling with spiritual activity, one would need to know how to tap into her authority. And if someone were to challenge her power . . . well, as Paul would find out, that could create quite a stir.
That s the setting for Paul s letter to the churches in and around Ephesus. He wrote to people who had been steeped in a culture that rallied against him, who had been there when he was the center of a citywide protest, and who remembered well how intimidating a dominant culture can be. They were people of light living in a city of darkness, and Paul had lived with them in that darkness for nearly three years.
With that as the background, there would be no need for any Christian to prove the existence of demons or the presence of supernatural power to a citizen of Ephesus or its surrounding areas. In fact, nearly every Gentile Christian there had come to faith in Jesus out of that strange spiritual mix. If any advice to the churches of western Asia Minor were to be relevant, it would have to take into account the rampant occultism of Roman society. An un-supernatural gospel would have no impact there.
The Ephesian church was one of the strongest in the New Testament. Paul once wrote to the Corinthians that a great door for effective work had opened to him in Ephesus, even though many opposed him there (1 Cor. 16:9). It was where Timothy pastored and where John the apostle and Mary the mother of Jesus eventually lived. Paul s instructions do not seem to be directed at any particular shortcoming; they come across as encouragement for his readers to continue doing what they ve