In the First Century, Ephesus was the second largest city in the Roman Empire, and by many estimations, the second most important and influential as well. In addition to being the world center for the worship of Artemis, it was also a great commercial and governmental center, a great educational center, and a melting pot of many cultures, languages, races, religions and philosophies. If the Gospel of Christ was going to truly reach the world, it had to be effective in large cities like Ephesus! Today’s lesson introduces us to a city not very different than many great cities in our world today.
It is a great benefit to check some good Bible dictionary articles on Ephesus to learn more about the city. For example, we can read this in the Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary:
This is the first of 26 sermons I delivered on the Epistle to the Ephesians. They were presented at the Tanglewood Church of Christ in Odessa, Texas in 2013.
Of Paul’s 13 Epistles in the New Testament, two are commonly called “masterpieces” by biblical scholars. All recognize Romans as a masterful presentation of salvation by faith. In Ephesians by contrast, the Apostle provides a magnificent description of the riches God has provided by His mighty power for His people by grace through faith, and to His own glory and honor.
Recently I was addressing a group of young men who wanted to learn the Scriptures in greater depth. I was about to speak to them about the value of having and using great Bible resources. By resources I mean books and other physical and digital materials beyond the Bible itself which help illuminate and explain aspects of the Biblical text.
I asked the group of about 18 how many of them owned a Bible dictionary: one. How many owned a Bible commentary: two. How many owned or used Bible software: zero!
While I firmly believe the Bible alone is sufficient to teach us all we need to know in order to be saved and pleasing to God, that is not the same as saying we do not need anything else to understand (and teach) it better!
Last Fall I had the opportunity to teach a series entitled, “The Wonder Worker” at the Sunset Church of Christ. At the center of this study was a look at Jesus and His miracles. At that time I also posted an article on this website about the topic of miracles.
Maybe because I’m cut from the cloth of the “old school” Gospel preachers, there’s scarcely anything nearer to my heart than getting more books for my library. But now with the changing of times and technology, most of those books are digital. They are scattered across several of the popular digital platforms – Kindle, Apple Books, Adobe PDF – but the largest number are embedded within the various Bible software programs I own. These include Logos, Olive Tree, Wordsearch, Pocketbible, and my favorite, e-Sword.
In this article I want to mention a way to get FREE books through Logos Bible Software. If you visit their website, you will observe that their software packages range up to $10,000+! But there is a way to get some of their books and resources absolutely free. Here is the way to do it: Continue Reading
If you have not yet taken the opportunity to start listening to these short 3 to 5 minute audio lessons, I’m going to reproduce the written form of the most recent episode below.
I’m doing this for two reasons: (1) Every lesson is very good, and this one especially! (2) My overarching theme with www.EffectiveBibleStudy.com is providing good resources I use and can recommend to others who also teach God’s Word. As for this second point, a good student of the Word learns how both to dig into the text for him or herself, but also how to find and use good materials from others which also study the Scriptures. So, here’s the written form of Barry Cooper’s “Final Judgment.”Continue Reading
I wrote the following article almost exactly one year ago. But I continue to be impressed and blessed by The Bible Project resources, and want to introduce our new readers to this free set of multimedia materials. In addition they have added new resources over the last year we will talk about at the end of this reprinted article. Almost every time I visit their website or their YouTube channel, I find myself spending far more time than planned enjoying previously undiscovered great resources. – Richard Cravy
The Bible Project (www.thebibleproject.com) is a unique and valuable internet resource I greatly enjoy and regularly use for personal study. The project began in 2014 when Timothy Mackie and Jonathan Collins wanted to present the overall story, themes, and beauty of the Bible in a way that would connect with our modern media-centric culture.Continue Reading
As our family continues to do church at home because of the COVID pandemic, we are discovering new resources to help my grandchildren (and all of us) understand Bible concepts better. One such new resource is www.skitguys.com. These guys have produced many short skits, videos, animations and other useful stuff presenting concepts and principles from Scripture. Some of the things are free, while unlimited access is via a subscription. A quick search for “The Skit Guys” on YouTube will turn up many examples of their work. They mix a little humor with good scriptwriting and imagination to produce some very thought-provoking and enlightening material.
I especially want to highlight this short 4 minute video on Grace. The setting is Jesus’ meeting with Peter and the other disciples by the Sea of Galilee after his resurrection.Continue Reading
The following article was written by my son, Aaron Cravy, and appeared first on his website, www.inklingsandpaperthings.com. Since the beginning of the pandemic and the dismissing of services at the Sunset Church of Christ as a precautionary measure, we have been meeting as a family on Sundays for “home church.” This is his description of how this experience has been.
By my calculation, this morning was the 21st Sunday in which we did not attend a church service outside of our home. I had not realized that it had been that long, which is normal for those living the quarantine life. One week just kind of flows into the next and the next thing you know, it’s August. Wait. It’s AUGUST?!?! See what I mean, it’s hard to keep up with all the days flying by when not a whole lot is changing due to all the limitations imposed on us by this virus.Continue Reading
On February 5, 2020 I recommended the “Today in Christian History” daily email newsletter published by the Christianity Today Magazine. This daily email is a must-read for me every single day. Of course, this is because I am both a student and a teacher of Christian History, and love to always be learning more about the people and events that have shaped Christianity over the centuries.
So, starting today, I am going to frequently “borrow” ideas from “Today in Christian History” to write mini-posts for this site. These will not be “copy and paste” plagiarized articles, but simply posts inspired by things I read in that newsletter. I hope that these articles will inspire and educate you, my readers, as they do me.Continue Reading
Having looked at the New Testament documents – and particularly the four Gospels – as reliable historical records of the existence, life and teachings of Jesus, we now want to briefly consider evidence outside the pages of these documents which help corroborate their record. A common misconception and erroneous criticism about Christianity is that there is no evidence outside the New Testament about Jesus. We hope to illustrate the error of that view in this message.
I have recommended a number of podcasts over the last few months. Podcasts are audio ( or sometimes video) programs posted on the internet and/or in some of the popular podcasting services (iTunes, Spotify, etc.) on specific topics or areas of interest. I often listen to them while driving, especially on longer trips, because I can learn something while being otherwise limited in what I can do other than keep my eyes on the road ahead. Podcasting services provide access to their apps on both Android and Apple phones and tablets. And most podcasts are provided free of charge.Continue Reading