The Ray Ortlund Interview

Oh, it's a privilege to be here, Sean.

I, I love this.

Um, here's, here's the privilege God is giving us, and I'm prompted by your very kind words.

I remember reading a book by an Italian archeologist about Ancient Rome.

We think, from our Hollywood-ized imaginations, we think of Ancient Rome as, as gleaming marble and sumptuous banquets and flowing togas and so forth.

It was a sewer.

Mm.

Unless you were the elite of the elite of the elite, Ancient Rome was living hell, and you did not go out after dark.

Mm.

Most of the people, there were about 40,000 apartment buildings in Ancient Rome, um, multi-story, and that's where almost everybody lived, and there were no building codes, of course.

So this archeologist said that, that on, my paraphrase of what he wrote now, on any given day-

[laughs]

...

if we could go back in time and stand on the street of Ancient Rome and just listen, there's a good chance we would hear the low rumble of one of those wretched apartment buildings collapsing-

Mm

... without warning under the weight of its own incompetent construction.

And that's where the Christians lived.

Mm.

That's where they raised their families.

That's where they had their house churches.

And to those Christians in a world literally falling apart-

Mm

...

the Apostle Paul wrote, "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope-

Mm