Day 07 - Ephesus, Ephesus Museum

Day 7 - Restoring Love

We have completed Day 7 in Turkiye!! We spent our day in Ephesus!! It was a huge site but only fifteen to twenty percent of the site has been excavated. The first temple of Artemis is in Ephesus. It was the largest cult city in the Roman Empire. We looked at residential homes during this time. Ephesus is the largest archaeological site in Turkey.

We sat in the Agora in Ephesus. We talked about slaves and the poor treatment in Ephesus. Ephesus had a sick underbelly. It communicated that certain lives are expendable. Paul came to Ephesus in the book of Acts and shared the gospel. People began to riot because the truth of the gospel was stirring in their hearts.

Then, we dove into Revelation 2:1-7 which is the letter to the church of Ephesus. Domitian was emperor at this time. They received a letter of commendation and criticism. They had endured hardship but kept working hard. They forsook a love that they first had which was loving others. They are called to repent and turn back to their old ways. Ephesus requires us to think like Jesus and how he loves others.

We also visited the Ephesus Museum. At the museum, there were statues to different gods and goddesses, pottery, coins, and other Roman mythology statues. A statue that stood out in the museum was Artemis. She was a mother, virgin, protector of life, and goddess of craft. Her statue was huge and something that you cannot miss which was the purpose of all of these statues. These goddess and gods loved themselves and were very self-centered. Jesus is the opposite he loved us enough to die for us and raise from the dead. That is the most unselfish act that could be done.

A takeaway that I had from today is what does real love look like? I believe the answer is so simple. It is Jesus. Love wins in a very real way. I hope that we would be people that would love like Jesus and love in a way that we desire to be loved.

- Faith Wolverton