The Journey from Tarsus

Over the past several months I have really developed a desire to learn more about the Bible. Perhaps in a future post I'll share more about the past few years of my life and how it has been almost stagnant in spiritual growth. Through the circumstances surrounding the birth of my 2nd child, where my wife and I saw God's mighty hand in action, I realized that I needed to invest more time and energy into my relationship with God.



Having not been raised in a christian home, I struggle with not really knowing how to study the Bible. To complicate matters, the ministers/teachers at most churches I have attended assume that those in the audience have a good foundation for spiritual understanding. The realization that I needed better, more focused, teaching led to significant changes in my family's lives. This included the desire to find a new church more geared to developing the spiritual foundation and understanding of it's members. Although this was not an easy decision, looking back it was certainly the correct one.



I recently came across the website for the Two Rivers Church (http://www.2rc.cc) located here in Knoxville, TN. After navigating around their website for a while I discovered that the pastor (Brad Brinson) made his sermons available for download. Further, in most cases, he also provides an outline to follow along with the message. After listening to several of his sermons regarding the topic of prayer, I came across a series he taught in early 2006 on the book of Ephesians (written by the apostle Paul). I found the series of sermons so fascinating that I committed myself to doing an in depth study of the life and ministry of Paul.



This weekend I visited the Cedar Springs Bookstore (http://www.cschristian.com/e/home.asp) to see what, if any, study guides or resources were available to assist me. I chose a study created by Beth Moore whom my wife says is an incredible teacher, based on several past studies she has completed. The title of the study is "To Live Is Christ: The Life and Minstry of Paul." (http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/eshopping_product_page/0%2C%2CM%3D201079&I%3D0767334124%2C00.html?R=779590)



The 10 week study begins with the assumptions made by the author regarding what the childhood of Paul must have been like. Tarsus is the city where Paul was born....thus, let the journey begin towards a better understanding............