The Plan All Along – The Plan All Along (Ephesians 1:1-2)

“We live in a time where it’s very easy to be disconnected from the church and still feel like we’re in fellowship with God’s people. In some ways, we’re really not that worried about unity because there isn’t such a difference between Christian culture and the world culture around us. But church community was so essential, so crucial, that the believers in a city like Ephesus would carve symbols into the rock on the ground as a sign to other Christians who might be looking for them.

Perhaps you’ve heard the term ‘Ichthus.’ Christians would carve IXOYE, an acronym that stood for ‘Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior’ so that others would know where the church could be found. In Ephesus you can still see some of these carvings. They used the Ichthus Wheel. It was a circle with 8 spokes and with it you can see all the letters of IXOYE.

I don’t know what sort of vandalism laws were on the books, but imagine church fellowship and unity being so important that you took a hammer and chisel with you out into public so you could carve a special symbol into the concrete so you could gather with Christians you’ve never met!“