This week on the Word of the Lord endures forever, we plow along in Proverbs 7 and 8,

covering her house is the way to she-old, wisdom's call, granting an inheritance,

the Lord possessed me, and favor from the Lord. Join me, Pastor Will Whedon, for the Word of

the Lord Endors Forever, your daily 15-minute daily 15 minute verse by verse Bible study on demand

listen at the word indoors.org or your favorite podcast provider

he was the bishop of Antioch and a very early Christian martyr.

He was eventually thrown to the Wild Beast if you see an icon or a painting of Ignatius

of Antioch. He's often pictured with two lions kind of chewing him up. But on his way to his martyrdom, he penned letters to Christians all over that end of the world.

And he had some great ideas and a beautiful pastoral tone,

even while he was condemning the various heresies Christianity was facing at the time. Welcome back to Issues, Et cetera. I'm Todd Wilkin, joining us to talk about early second century pastor and martyr, Ignatius of Antioch, Pastor Will Whedon, he's assistant pastor at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Hamill, Illinois, formerly served as director of worship for the Lutheran Church, Missouri Senate. He's author of the books, Celebrating the Saints, Thank, Praise, Serve, and Obey. See My Savior's hands. We praise you, O God, and his latest, I remember, A Life of Mary. And he hosts the daily 15-minute verse-by-verse Bible study, produced by Lutheran Public Radio called The Word of the Lord Endures Forever. Well, welcome back. Hey, thank you.

Joy to be with you.

How do we know about Ignatius himself?

Well, it's so cool that the Biot, as he is on his way to be executed, to be martyred for the faith,

writes a series of letters to his friend Polycarp and to a whole bunch of churches that he visited on the way from Antioch to Rome.

He was the bishop of Antioch, the third bishop of that city.

There was Peter.

There was, oh, I can't remember the name, Evoidius.

And then there was Ignatius.

So, you know, he's really closely tied to the apostle.

He's probably born like AD 35.

So just after all the events recorded in the Gospels take place, this man's born.

And he connects directly with John, the evangelist, and he gives us then an insight into the shape of church life

...