Ephesus Students

Steps of Repentance

2010-02-04T04:12:53Z

1. Are you able to receive the rebukes of others - even from individuals who don't deserve to give them? Are you willing, for the sake of love, to rebuke a brother or sister in sin?

2. When's the last time you confessed sin to God? To another person? Are you willing to embarrass yourself before those you want to impress with a frank acknowledgement of your sin? (In doing so, of course, you should take care that no weaker or younger Christian is attracted to the sin you are confessing).

3. When you are confronted with your sin, either by another person or by the quick flashes of your conscience, do you take steps to repent, that is, to cease and desist? Or do you, honestly, go easy on yourself? Are you quick to point to circumstances? Can you think of a recent occasion where you went easy on yourself?

4. Once you have confessed a sin and owned up to your responsibility, do you get angry when the other parties still ask you to take responsibility for the consequences of your sin? When was the last time you did that?

5. How quickly would your parents (or spouse, sibling, friend, co-worker) say you grant forgiveness? Or would they say you tend to let bitterness fester? Or consider the question like this: Jesus told us to pray, "Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors" (Matthew 6:12). Would you really want God to answer that prayer?

What are you doing, or what can you do to promote these five steps of repentance in your local church?

Ten Questions for the New Year

2009-12-30T14:39:48Z

The following article is by Donald Whitney, associate professor of biblical spirituality at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and author of several books to include the highly recommended, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life.

Ten Questions to Ask at the Start of a New Year or On Your Birthday

Once, when the people of God had become careless in their relationship with Him, the Lord rebuked them through the prophet Haggai. "Consider your ways!" (Haggai 1:5) he declared, urging them to reflect on some of the things happening to them, and to evaluate their slipshod spirituality in light of what God had told them.

Even those most faithful to God occasionally need to pause and think about the direction of their lives. It's so easy to bump along from one busy week to another without ever stopping to ponder where we're going and where we should be going.

The beginning of a new year is an ideal time to stop, look up, and get our bearings. To that end, here are some questions to ask prayerfully in the presence of God.

1. What's one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?

2. What's the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?

3. What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?

4. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?

5. What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?

6. What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?

7. For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?

8. What's the most important way you will, by God's grace, try to make this year different from last year?

9. What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?

10. What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in ten years? In eternity?

In addition to these ten questions, here are twenty-one more to help you "Consider your ways." Think on the entire list at one sitting, or answer one question each day for a month.

11. What's the most important decision you need to make this year?

12. What area of your life most needs simplifying, and what's one way you could simplify in that area?

13. What's the most important need you feel burdened to meet this year?

14. What habit would you most like to establish this year?

15. Who do you most want to encourage this year?

16. What is your most important financial goal this year, and what is the most important step you can take toward achieving it?

17. What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your work life this year?

18. What's one new way you could be a blessing to your pastor (or to another who ministers to you) this year?

19. What's one thing you could do this year to enrich the spiritual legacy you will leave to your children and grandchildren?

20. What book, in addition to the Bible, do you most want to read this year?

21. What one thing do you most regret about last year, and what will you do about it this year?

22. What single blessing from God do you want to seek most earnestly this year?

23. In what area of your life do you most need growth, and what will you do about it this year?

24. What's the most important trip you want to take this year?

25. What skill do you most want to learn or improve this year?

26. To what need or ministry will you try to give an unprecedented amount this year?

27. What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your commute this year?

28. What one biblical doctrine do you most want to understand better this year, and what will you do about it?

29. If those who know you best gave you one piece of advice, what would they say? Would they be right? What will you do about it?

30. What's the most important new item you want to buy this year?

31. In what area of your life do you most need change, and what will you do about it this year?

The value of many of these questions is not in their profundity, but in the simple fact that they bring an issue or commitment into focus. For example, just by articulating which person you most want to encourage this year is more likely to help you remember to encourage that person than if you hadn't considered the question.

If you've found these questions helpful, you might want to put them someplace--in a day planner, PDA, calendar, bulletin board, etc.--where you can review them more frequently than once a year.

So let's evaluate our lives, make plans and goals, and live this new year with biblical diligence, remembering that, "The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage" (Proverbs 21:5). But in all things let's also remember our dependence on our King who said, "Apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).

2009 Summer Camp Sermons

2009-10-19T16:12:18Z

The sermon audio from the 2009 Ephesus Students Summer Camp (Already/Not Yet: Living In Between) is now posted online under the media tab. Go check it out -- email your friends, download, and make as many copies as you'd like. We'd only ask that you do not change the content in any way without permission.

Memory Verse Cards

2009-09-04T17:05:59Z

Check out this awesome new tool to create and print your own memory verse cards. One of the most effective ways to memorize something is constant recall -- to have compact, portable cards with the verses you want to recall on them makes the process easier, and much more effective for the long term. Go -- Check it out!

35 Reasons Not to Sin

2009-09-04T14:32:55Z

Because a little sin leads to more sin.
Because my sin invites the discipline of God.
Because the time spent in sin is forever wasted.
Because my sin never pleases but always grieves God who loves me.
Because my sin places a greater burden on my spiritual leaders.
Because in time my sin always brings heaviness to my heart.
Because I am doing what I do not have to do.
Because my sin always makes me less than what I could be.
Because others, including my family, suffer consequences due to my sin.
Because my sin saddens the godly.
Because my sin makes the enemies of God rejoice.
Because sin deceives me into believing I have gained when in reality I have lost.
Because sin may keep me from qualifying for spiritual leadership.
Because the supposed benefits of my sin will never outweigh the consequences of disobedience.
Because repenting of my sin is such a painful process, yet I must repent.
Because sin is a very brief pleasure for an eternal loss.
Because my sin may influence others to sin.
Because my sin may keep others from knowing Christ.
Because sin makes light of the cross, upon which Christ died for the very purpose of taking away my sin.
Because it is impossible to sin and follow the Spirit at the same time.
Because God chooses not to respect the prayers of those who cherish their sin.
Because sin steals my reputation and robs me of my testimony.
Because others once more earnest than I have been destroyed by just such sins.
Because the inhabitants of heaven and hell would all testify to the foolishness of this sin.
Because sin and guilt may harm both mind and body.
Because sins mixed with service make the things of God tasteless.
Because suffering for sin has no joy or reward, though suffering for righteousness has both.
Because my sin is adultery with the world.
Because, though forgiven, I will review this very sin at the Judgment Seat where loss and gain of eternal rewards are applied.
Because I can never really know ahead of time just how severe the discipline for my sin might be.
Because my sin may be an indication of a lost condition.
Because to sin is not to love Christ.
Because my unwillingness to reject this sin now grants it an authority over me greater than I wish to believe.
Because sin glorifies God only in His judgment of it and His turning of it to good use, never because it is worth anything on it's own.
Because I promised God he would be Lord of my life.

(HT: The Rebelution)

Don't Let the Beanbag Get You

2009-09-04T13:57:23Z

Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.

It will be healing to your flesh; and refreshment to your bones.

Honor the Lord with your wealth; and with the firstfruits of all your produce;

then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.

My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

Proverbs 3:7-12

Living Dangerously

2009-08-31T15:17:38Z

Family Worship Guide

2009-08-26T13:48:25Z

(By: Pastor Nick)

A new website is set to launch on August 30 called, Family Worship Guide. It looks to be an excellent resource for every Christian family.

Family worship has become an almost mantra-like exhortation from me to our congregation as I emphasize the vital importance of the family worshiping God together, in the home, day after day. Please, check out this new resource and utilize it to improve your family's worship of the one true God!

Redeeming the Time

2009-08-24T16:06:49Z

(By: Pastor Nick)

Matt Tonne wrote an excellent blog post with a challenge to parents to redeem our time. Go check it out -- here's a quote:

We need to be better about redeeming the time, and I want to encourage you as school starts to redeem the time you have. Specifically I want to encourage you to leverage the time it takes your child to get to school. Your kids may take a bus, walk, ride their bike, or skateboard to school. All of these have their own benefits, but I want to encourage you to drive your kids to school at least a couple times a week.

Drive your kids to school. Turn off the radio. Then leverage the time to engage your child's heart. Spend time talking about life and the gospel. Get updates on how school went and how they are feeling about their upcoming soccer game, dance recital, etc. Talk about what they have been learning at Kids' Village, memorize Scripture together or talk about their dreams about the future or their current favorite movie. Just connect with them and connect in a way that advances your relationship and advances the gospel.

Give Them Hope

2009-08-06T17:02:39Z

(By: Sam Barber)

"If God chooses people for salvation, and they have no choice in the matter, how can you offer them any hope when sharing the gospel with them?" she asked. It was in the middle of an intense conversation between five brothers and sisters. So unfortunately I was not able to answer her as thoroughly as I wished because the conversation was drawn elsewhere rather quickly. She may never read this, but this is my response.

I can offer them hope, because if God does not decisively act on their heart, they have no hope. The only hope a rebellious, God-hating, sinner has is that God would violate that sinners freedom to will, and save their soul. This may be a hard concept to grasp, but it is the heart of the gospel. Let's start at the beginning.

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). So we see that God created everything and indeed we read that, "God saw everything that he made, and behold, it was very good" (Genesis 1:31a). Unfortunately, it's only two chapters later before things go bad. Chapter three; only two chapters have passed and what God created as good falls into disarray. God commands man not to do one thing: "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it you shall surely die" (Genesis 2:16). Then in the next chapter we read that they did indeed eat of the one tree they were not supposed too. This is ultimately either, disaster or design.

For some clarity on the affect this has had on us, let's flip over to Romans chapter 5: "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through [Adam], and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned..." (Romans 5:12). Also, let's look at Ephesians: "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience" (Ephesians 2:1-2).

So we're dead. We are physically dying (we inherited that from Adam), and we are born spiritually dead for, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Psalm 51:5) (this also, inherited from Adam). We also became enemies of God. Paul, in writing to the Romans says, "For if while we were enemies [with God]..." (Romans 5:10). I'll leave it there for now, I just want to begin with the fact that we are completely and utterly at odds with God. 1 Corinthians 2:14 says, "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. "

We're dead, we're enemies, and unwilling and unable to accept and believe the things of God. This is the state of every person ever born. We have a natural bent away from God. Going back to Romans Paul says, "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks God" (Romans 3:10); I urge you to continue reading that passage, it should become very clear (if it isn't already) that we are completely evil.

So now let me pose the question, "Can this person that is a spiritually dead, evil, hater of God, ever choose to live for this God?" Better yet, would this person ever choose to do so? NO, the answer is no. This person (which is the essence of every person ever born--aside from Jesus) would never choose to believe in and follow this God. So before I continue, I want to rephrase the initial question. "If God does not decisively act, and there is a choice to be made on the part of each man, yet each person is unwilling and unable to choose God, but God refuses to override our freedom to choose...how can you offer someone any hope when telling them about Jesus?"

I want to wrap this up now, as quickly as possible. Here is how I am able to offer hope to the perishing man. Romans chapter 5, verse 10:

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received reconciliation.

This is the glorious truth of the Gospel, "For while we were still weak at the right time Christ died for the ungodly" (Romans 5:6). Yet, this was the plan all along. Look back at Ephesians. Paul writes:

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved--and raised us up with him and seated us in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2: 4-10)

Then in Chapter one of the same book, Paul writes:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:3-6)

Is this not the most exciting, breath-taking, lovely news in the entire world: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). Where does this believe (this faith) come from? It comes from grace, and the will and action of God! Though we hated God, we loved ourselves and our sin, and wanted nothing to do with him God would stoop to take from us our cold dead hearts of stone and replace them with hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 36: 22-38), that we may receive the Son to the praise of God.

The only message of hope, is that God would give us new hearts by his grace. The only hope we have is that God decided long ago that he would save some of us and give us mercy and love and grace to be with him for eternity. Let us not be mistaken, were it not for God loving us, and giving us hearts to love him, we would never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever had chosen to love him.

Be Doers of the Word, Not Preachers Only.

2009-08-03T18:27:01Z

(By: Sam Barber)

A few weeks ago we finished up our trek through the book of James on Wednesdays. It has been an excellent journey, and I'm grateful for Nick, and all the brothers that put forth such effort to bring us the living Word of God.

Our theme for the study was to be "Doers of the Word" (James 1:22). James speaks on the importance of having a faith that saves, in relation to the person who, "says he has faith but does not have works?" (James 2:14).

James is deeply concerned with those who sit in the pew week in and week out, hearing the word of God, and yet walk out the doors and their lives speak nothing of what they have just heard. I want to echo James' cry that, "Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead" (James 2:17).

We must not only be hearers and preachers of the Word--if we are not doers of the Word our hearing and preaching are useless! You know the phrase, "actions speak louder than words." How true that is, we can sit and talk all day until we're blue in the face, but if we're not willing to make a sacrifice to serve our brothers and sisters, and the lost and dying world around us our words are nothing but a, "Noisy gong, or a clanging cymbal" (1 Corinthians 13:1). Yet, we see here in 1 Corinthians that even actions are not enough, "If I have not love then I am nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:2); we must have love. Paul continues and says, "If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:3). For our words to mean anything we must have action, and for our action to mean anything it must be motivated by love.

Love, love, love! You cannot separate Christianity from love. It is an impossibility; the only reasons we're Christians is that God loved us, so we must go out and love. Love is doing for people what will make them eternally happy, at whatever cost to ourselves; namely pointing them to the Savior, through our words and a deeds, in hopes that they will come to delight and rejoice in his name, and trust in his atoning death on the cross for the ransom of their souls for eternity.

God be Merciful to Me

2009-07-09T14:35:31Z

(By: Sam Barber)

Last night (7/08/09) we had a night of prayer and repentance in lieu of our regular Wednesday night service. To be honest, I was a little unsure how it would turn out, but praise be to God that even with my doubts and uncertainties he is able to do a mighty work. We all simply took turns praying out loud, confessing our sins and asking God to do a mighty work in the people at Ephesus, and in the community we live in. It was a time or sorrow for sin, but through Jesus Christ we know we are forgiven of that sin, and know he will be with us as we make war on our sin. I won't say much else, other than I am so grateful for last night; I am thankful for my brothers and sisters who came out last night as we shared our hearts with the Lord and one another, and I am thankful that God saw fit to move in our hearts. Praise be to God for repentance and forgiveness. I leave you with Psalm 51, which has always been a great blessing to me and last night certainly was very convicting:

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; then will you delight in aright sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.

I Can Do All Things Through Christ, Even Starve.

2009-06-17T20:25:49Z

(By: Sam Barber)

Philippians 4:13 says, "I can do all things through him [Christ] who strengthens me." What a beautiful verse; I love this wonderful truth. But I fear that many Christians (in the United States at least) sorely misunderstand what the Apostle Paul meant. The title for this post comes from a section in the book Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper. He writes:

When Paul promised, "My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus," he had just said, "I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need..."I can be destitute of food and clothing through him who strengthens me." That is what Jesus promised...If we starve, he will be our everlasting, life-giving bread. If we are shamed with nakedness, he will be our perfect, all-righteous apparel. If we are tortured and made to scream in our dying pain, he will keep us from cursing his name and will restore our beaten body to everlasting beauty.^[1]

This is what Paul meant when he said, "I can do all things through him who strengthens me." Paul was not talking about making the football team, or passing the test, winning the race, etc. Paul did not have Philippians 4:13 printed on the back of his softball shirt or the sleeve of his boxing robe. Paul means that, "I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content" (Philippians 4:11b).

God may or may not call me to do some of the hardest things imaginable, but if he does I can do them because it is Christ that strengthens me. I can freeze in the Andes Mountains (or Minnesota I guess, ha), I can sweat in the desert; I can nearly drown in the river, or starve in the jungle. I can suffer loss of friends or family. I can lose jobs and homes and cars; losing all these and still cherishing Christ above all is possible because it is Christ's strength, not mine, that will sustain me and he is the Treasure of my heart. God will provide for my every need, wherever he calls me to be. Need is very important to understand here. I certainly do not mean want, and more often than not what we need is not what we think we need. This also doesn't mean I won't be hurt, hungry, thirsty, beaten, even killed. But it means that wherever God calls me to be, I will be provided for until he calls me home; until my job is finished, Christ will be my strength and my supply.

I can do all this, because my Jesus awaits my arrival in Heaven. One day, with Christ in glory, I (along with every believer from all of history) will look back on their lives and see the suffering and agony we experience in this life as glory as it has fitted us for heaven. We will look back and see that every adversity and every blessing has prepared us to meet our Savior face to face and spend all eternity enthralled with the majesty of his glory.

^[1]John Piper,Don't Waste Your LIfe (Wheaton:Crossway Books, 2007)., 94-95.

Make War

2009-06-11T18:10:27Z

(By: Sam Barber)

It's been a while since I've been able to write a post for the blog; I'll try to get back into a routine. I want to start back with an exhortation that I received from Pastor John Piper, a pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I was on the 10:31 Sermon Jams website (they take excerpts from sermons, and add music to them), and came across one from this man of God, entitled "War."

I'll let him do most of the talking, so I won't comment much on it. I just want to note how much it affected me. I am ever grateful to God for this message, it came at a much needed time in my life. I feel that I've been cruising through life; I have not been making war! I love the imagery of the Christian life as being a war. It paints such a desperate picture of intensity and determination.

War is ugly, and hard; war is exhausting; war against sin will take everything you have. We may lose sleep over are sin; we may lose friends over our sin; we may need to be hungry, and thirsty in our fight against our sin; we may shed our own blood over our sin; we may even lose our life over our sin. Fighting sin is more important than sleeping, eating, drinking, etc. Fighting sin is more important than keeping our very lives! No sacrifice that we can make is to great to overcome our sin. We must be willing to part with everything in this world to kill our sin. We must be willing to get rid of it all! We must develop a mean-streak against our sin. Our sin is what separates us from God, we must hate our sin.

Jesus spoke of this wartime mentality in Matthew 5:29-30:

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose of of you members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut if off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

He was referring specifically to the sin of lust, and was not out-right demanding that we tear out our eyes, and cut off our hands (if he was, we would have a lot of blind, limbless people), but rather he was making it clear how devoted we must be to fighting our sin: drastic measures. Christ Jesus has died for the sins of his people, and we must not take that lightly. We cannot go about sinning as if it cost Jesus nothing; it cost Jesus his life! Why do we assume it will not cost us ours! I close with the words of the Apostle Paul, he said:

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith--that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:8-11)

Make sure to listen to the excerpt above from Pastor John. I pray that God will bless you through it, as he has blessed me.

Make War

The Blessings of a Church Family

2009-06-09T18:10:23Z

(By: Pastor Nick)

June 3, 2009 is a day I will never forget. The birth of my first child, Eva Lane Kennicott, will always be remembered for the joy that it was and continues to be for us. To hear her first cry, to look her in the face for the first time, to hold her in my arms and present her to her mother -- unforgettable.

Also amazing in this time has been the love and shower of blessings from Ephesus Church. We had several visitors throughout our extended stay at the hospital, came home to a clean house, a mowed lawn, a fridge and pantry filled with food, and constant hot meals being delivered to us. We've also received many gifts, cards, and letters that have all encouraged us in numerous ways. What an incredible blessing!

I am reminded of that great passage of Scripture that describes the early church's example of true fellowship in Acts 2:42: "And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved."

True fellowship is to be so tightly tied together as a family of believers, that when there is a need, there is an attitude that is so overwhelming that says, "I cannot hold on to anything when my brother or sister is in need - how can I when Jesus has taught to love our neighbors as we love ourselves and do unto others as we would have done onto us?" Many, many people of Ephesus Church have proved to us once again that this is a family of faith that loves one another in a sacrificial, encouraging, life-giving way. What a joy to be a part of such a family! We thank God for Ephesus and her members and pray that many more would experience the great work of the gospel in and through the people who so readily give of themselves.

Thank you all! We are blessed and overwhelmed with joy in Christ because of you.