Sneak Peek for this Sunday

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If you were writing an important piece of literature that would be read by the elite of society in the highest echelons, and knew that women were devalued in the culture (treated as objects, property), children considered disposable by others and slaves viewed as inferiors, how would you write?  Would you choose your words carefully, diplomatically? Would you address first those who believed they ought to be addressed and gently challenge their societal beliefs? How might you write this challenge to the ways and times of life around you? When writing to those who had bowed their necks to Jesus in Ephesus, Paul was writing into a such a culture.  And yet, when writing about how these believers could actually live out their lives, decided, boldly to address what his readers would view as the lowest, the least, the silenced in their society first. Paul put women, children and slaves first in his epistle. Today we can read past this, ignoring his boldness, but then? Boldly Paul said women, children and slaves had voices, had the ability to choose, were equally valuable, equally worthy in this new Kingdom. Their lives mattered.  They made a difference. All bore allegiance to Jesus. Get a drift of that! Come to worship!