Acts 2:7-8

Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?

From Background Notes [BN] for Mar 5th & 6th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

“What does this mean?” They looked for understanding in the words and actions of the Gospel witnesses, and the context for finding meaning was precisely the community experience afforded by the shared festival.

Ezekiel 22:30

"I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none”

From Background Notes [BN] for Mar 5th & 6th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

What strategies would the Church adopt that would adapt its faith to the new world without leaving behind the core values that gave Christianity its distinctive and non-negotiable identity?

Ephesians 4:30

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

From Background Notes [BN] for Feb 27th & 28th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Paul’s deep desire for the Ephesian Christians, and God’s desire for us today, is that we know Him better, grasp and experience His “incomparably great power for us who believe,” and...

Ephesians 4:22-24

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;  to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

From Background Notes [BN] for Feb 27th & 28th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Whole communities must "put off" the old nature and "put on" the new one.

Ephesians 4:17

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.

From Background Notes [BN] for Feb 27th & 28th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Long-standing habits are hard to break, and the habits of the "old nature" require the special work of God, first in the full surrender of our hearts to him, which inaugurates "sanctification", and then...

Ephesians 2:21

In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.

From Background Notes [BN] for Feb 20th & 21st written by Pastor Bob Brown:

When Paul uses the language of "temple", he speaks of the "holy temple in the Lord", a rather specific allusion to the "sanctuary" portion of the Temple, the "inner temple", consisting of "holy place" and "most holy place".

Ephesians 2:6-7

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus  in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

From Background Notes [BN] for Feb 20th & 21st written by Pastor Bob Brown:

What does it mean to be "seated" with Christ in the heavenlies?