Who Am I?

This morning during our Bible study each woman took a few minutes to create a list of words to describe who she is. We are beginning a study on Paul's letter to the Ephesians and one of the purposes is to find out who we are and whether we are living up to who we are. We'll make another list to describe ourselves at the end of the study and compare the two. Should be interesting!

Here is my list:

• mom
• wife
• teacher
• shy
• nervous in new situations
• stubborn
• thoughtful
• like to read, learn
• love my bed!
• saved
• forgiven
• easily pleased
• perfectionist
• emotional
• enjoy simple things
• procrastinator
• hopeful

Doing the background work for this study I found it interesting that Ephesus was an important coastal city during Paul's time. In fact, while it was the third largest city in the Roman empire, behind Rome and Alexandria, it was the occult centre of the empire. It was a hub of commerce and travel and the Romans had landed there when they were about to take over the province of Asia. It was a rather cosmopolitan place. Ephesus housed the Temple of Artemis (one of the seven wonders of the ancient world) and Paul's ministry was considered a threat to this temple. Many vendors made their living selling idols of the goddess Artemis and with Paul preaching that there is only one true God they were envisioning their livelihood going down the drain so they took steps to have him removed. Paul's message spread throughout all Asia and affected both Jews and Gentiles. The people were realising that magic stands no chance against the gospel and that handmade gods are useless. The types of practices that were acceptable at that time remind me of what is now deemed acceptable and commonplace in North America. There seems to be a renewed interest in alternative spiritualities while at the same time a moving away from Christianity. Scary! I think this study will be very helpful in learning more about spiritual warfare!