Architecture and Agriculture A Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: Architecture and Agriculture Keywords: "grounded" "rooted” Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. The following passage includes one of the Apostle Paul's great prayers for believers. In it, he requests certain things from God for our benefit. We'll take a few days to explore this prayer and see how it might help us stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. Passage: Ephesians 3:14-19* 14. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, 15. from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, 16. that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; 17. so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18. may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19. and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God. Questions 1. Verse 17 speaks of being "rooted" in love. What image does that bring to mind?   2. Paul also says in the same verse that Christians are "grounded" in love? What does that image suggest to you?   Practical help What is a Christian? Fundamentally, a Christian is someone who has been perfectly loved by a good, sovereign God. According to the Bible, love is not a feeling, but a studied decision to seek the best for the one who is loved. And God has sought our best! Paul summarizes the way God has lovingly dealt with Christians in Ephesians 1 by saying that we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. When we came to know Christ by faith, we were established in love. Paul says we were "rooted and grounded." Each of our lives are architectural marvels. Each day that passes we add new bricks to the superstructure of our lives. Experiences, character development, failures and successes all make up who we are, and the building that is our life will rise many stories high through time. Yet there is never a danger that your life or mine will "topple over," because we have been grounded in the solid love of God in Christ. Your life, too, is an agricultural marvel. Trees are living, growing organisms which are dependent for their survival on the health of their root system. The roots send nutrients from the soil through the trunk to the branches and then to the leaves. The root system gives stability in strong storms and on windy days. Paul likens Christians to trees in Ephesians 3:17. We are trees whose branches and leaves are secure because our roots are sunk into the love of God! When you came to know Christ by faith, you became an agricultural and architectural marvel because you were rooted and grounded in the love of God. That love not only guarantees that your future is secure with God in Heaven. It also provides you with the security and stability you need today to say, "No!" to the temptation of sexual immorality and Internet porn. Rest in God's love as you stand strong. eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 2003 by eXXit *Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission. ----