Title: Stranger in Darkness (10)
Series: Ephesians
Author: Stephen Whitney
Text: Ephesians 2:11-13
When you are deployed overseas in the Military you see how those living in third world countries just struggling to survive. They don't have the resources or advantages to make their lives better and often, they are just living from hand to mouth.
When I was deployed to the Sinai on Peace Keeping Mission between Israel and Egypt in 1995 we were not allowed to give the local people anything - not even food or water because they would become dependent upon the U.S. military to live. We would drive right by people standing on the side of the road begging for a handout. Local people would walk by a military post, but were not allowed in or given anything.
If you wore the army uniform you enjoyed all the rights and
privileges such as free housing, food, health care and security that went along with being a soldier. But if you didn't wear the uniform you were considered an outsider who didn't get any of the privileges even though you might have needed them even more than those that had them.
In the military you are either on the inside or the outside. You either have all the rights and privileges of the military or you don't have any of them. You are either in or out.
You have felt accepted or rejected when you with a group of people. Either you were included or you were excluded. It all depends upon who you are, what you do or who you know that determines if you are included or excluded from a group.
In Bible times the Jews saw themselves as God's chosen people and everyone else as second-class citizens. In the NT people are called Jews or Gentiles meaning non-Jews.
Romans 9:4 Paul lists some of the advantages which the Jews enjoyed as God's chosen people over the Gentiles.
"Theirs is the adoption as sons (chosen to be God's people); theirs is the divine glory (God revealed himself to them), the covenants (Abraham - they would be a gre ...
Series: Ephesians
Author: Stephen Whitney
Text: Ephesians 2:11-13
When you are deployed overseas in the Military you see how those living in third world countries just struggling to survive. They don't have the resources or advantages to make their lives better and often, they are just living from hand to mouth.
When I was deployed to the Sinai on Peace Keeping Mission between Israel and Egypt in 1995 we were not allowed to give the local people anything - not even food or water because they would become dependent upon the U.S. military to live. We would drive right by people standing on the side of the road begging for a handout. Local people would walk by a military post, but were not allowed in or given anything.
If you wore the army uniform you enjoyed all the rights and
privileges such as free housing, food, health care and security that went along with being a soldier. But if you didn't wear the uniform you were considered an outsider who didn't get any of the privileges even though you might have needed them even more than those that had them.
In the military you are either on the inside or the outside. You either have all the rights and privileges of the military or you don't have any of them. You are either in or out.
You have felt accepted or rejected when you with a group of people. Either you were included or you were excluded. It all depends upon who you are, what you do or who you know that determines if you are included or excluded from a group.
In Bible times the Jews saw themselves as God's chosen people and everyone else as second-class citizens. In the NT people are called Jews or Gentiles meaning non-Jews.
Romans 9:4 Paul lists some of the advantages which the Jews enjoyed as God's chosen people over the Gentiles.
"Theirs is the adoption as sons (chosen to be God's people); theirs is the divine glory (God revealed himself to them), the covenants (Abraham - they would be a gre ...
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