Today we went to Ephesus! It is another huge Greek acropolis. This is probably the biggest Greek acropolis we have been to. We went there in the morning when there are not that many people there and it was really gorgeous. The coolest thing there was the library. It is huge and they have built up the front part of it. It really amazes me how amazing humans are when I see these ruins. They had figured out so much, learned how to create so much. It really bears testimony to me that we are the same species of people as our Heavenly Father. We are all Gods, and like our Heavenly Father, we naturally strive to learn knowledge and create things. We are all Gods, and Gods create. That is what they do. And that is what humans have been doing since they came to the Earth.
Ancient toilets. Apparently they would have a servant sit on them to warm them up for the upper class people that used them. Talk about a bench warmer.
I go to school at the library of Ephesus!!
This is the picture of Ephesus in the Bible. Check it. It looks just like the Bible pic.
And then some random Asian man got in our picture, but I didn't notice till I saw the picture a couple days later and was like "what the heck!?!" It is so funny. You can kind of see him running over in the other picture.
Then we went to a village/greek acropolis called Priame. I was introduced to one of the most beautiful chapters in the New Testament here. I am sure I have read it before, but this time it really hit me. Prime was right next to the last city Paul taught at in the Asia Minor, so it was here that we read about and discussed Acts 20. This chapter is one of my new favorite chapters and my friend Jason Grover was telling me that he read this on his way home from his mission in Moscow and it made me realize that this is an amazing mission scripture because this is how missionaries must feel at the end of their missions, especially in countries where people yell at them, slam doors in their faces, and tell them to go home. Which is probably most missions. It is Paul’s last speech to the saints in Asia, and it is so powerful. It is in this speech that he explains that he has done all that he can do. He kept the faith, he went through persecution after persecution, he taught them the gospel out in public and in their homes, he had given his life to the ministry of the Savior. He had loved them with all his heart, and now we was going “bound in the spirit” to Jerusalem, trusting the Lord knew what he wanted him to do there. He does not know why he is going, but he expects the spirit to testify of the gospel’s truthfulness, and also much persecution, because this has been what has happened in every other city he has visited. He tells them that he knows that this is the last time he will every see them, and then as a final testimony, he declares to them once and for all that he is "pure from the blood of man”. He is clean, and can boldly go to the throne of God because he has done everything God had asked of him. Paul was a phenomenal man. He was a man that had changed his life, and had come to know who God was, come to know who he was, come to know what God could do with a man, and come to know that he was pure. This is my ultimate goal. To be able to say this. That I had spent my life in the service of God, strived all my life to do God’s will, endured with patience and humility the trials God had put in front of me, and on my deathbed can say with full confidence that I am pure.
After Paul says this, he says a final prayer with the saints and then they “all wept sore, and fell on Paul’s neck, and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him unto the ship." (Acts 20:37-38) These people had so much love for Paul. While going through the various places Paul went on his last mission to the Asia Minor, I have come to understand and love Paul too. He wasn’t the Nephi or the Captain Moroni. He had been a persecutor of the Christians, he had done bad things in his past. But yet when he was converted, he spent his life making up for it, and as we can see in Acts, he kind of always felt that his greatest testimony was his life. That if he, a humble servant of the Lord who was clearly very imperfect, can do what he does, can keep the faith, can fight the fight, so can anyone. So can you. I will forever be grateful for the example of Paul, and I think that during my mission I will read through Paul’s missionary journals often.
No comments:
Post a Comment