Day 10 Tue Jun 15

Day Ten Tuesday June 15th

On the bus at 7:00, headed to Ephesus.
Pastor Wayne taught in the Agora after walking thru most of Ephesus, which is a HUGE site.
Rev 2:2 Christianity is intolerant, not of other religions or prople, but of distortions of the truth. Jesus said that He was the is only way to God. We can test our conclusions against verifiable facts and feelings.
In Acts 19, the riot in Ephesus is described. Possibly started by the silversmiths in the audioreum (smaller than the theater, seats about 2000) and proceeded like a Greek soccer protest through the same streets that we walked down to the theater (which seats 25,000). Standing on those ancient streets, you could very well imagine a crowd going through the streets, chanting, gathering strength as it went along, and people getting swept up in it. Kind of a mass hypnosis effect. 
In Ephesus, there were four statues to four gods -- wisdom, knowledge, fairness/justice, and virtue. The book of Ephesians goes through and shows Jesus superior to all of them. 

Boarded the bus and drove to the port of Kusadasi and got there before 10:00. We went through customs and onto the cruise ship. We had a nice surprise in that Expedition Travel had provided a guide, Yanni, on the boat. He helped a lot, especially at Patmos dealing with the taxis.

At Patmos, the Grotto and the monastery built to honor John are at the top of a hill. There are tour buses, but we took taxis with four people each. Yanni negotiated a price of 25 Euros up and back. At the top, we sat in the shade on some stands while Pastor Wayne taught. He started in 2 Tim but I don't have the reference as I was slow to get started taking notes.
Ephesians 5-15-21 One of the great 'therefore' passages in the second half of Ephesians. "how you walk" means "how you live". In verse 18, "filled with the Spirit" means "controlled by" -- the more that you are controlled by the Spirit and by God, the more you can be yourself, not as your old flesh, but as a new creation in Jesus -- not dogs any more, but ducks, so quack.
Revelation 1:4-15 Verse 8 - Alpha and Omega -- Jesus is not only the Word, but He is the very letters of the word, from the first to the last. Verse 15 -- Many waters -- is a reference to Amos where he uses the term as a form of judgement. Verse 17 -- John, the apostle that knew Jesus so well that he leaned against him as a friend at the Last Supper, falls down "like a dead man" when he sees the glorified Jesus - Jesus is God. John knew how to balance the friendship with the worship and obedience that God requires. May We all learn to do this.

*Dale*