Peace unto You

Since September, I have been leading a new Sunday School class for what we refer to as College and Career.  This class has been such a blessing.  Truly.

Starting a few weeks ago, using the Proverbs scripture chosen as the focus of author Liz Curtis Higg's Bible study (she is awesome!  Please visit her page.), we began focusing on a scripture a week.  One week, we chose to remain on one scripture for another week.  Just going where the Lord led.

Then, this past week, as I pondered which scripture to chose for this past week's focus, I skimmed tomorrow's Sunday School lesson from the book of John, the scriptures of Jesus' resurrection, and these words lifted off the page, three times...

Peace unto you.

                      Peace unto you.

                                            Peace unto you.

This...peace...is what each and every one of the people in my class need.  As I have gotten to know them over the last few months, each have shared his/her story.  These people are dealing with real life.  Very real life.  Children.  Marriages.  Heartache.  Celebrations.  Love.  Christ.

Only because of His Peace can they overcome.

Only because of His Peace will the testimonies continue to be told.  Week after week.  Text after text.  Conversation after conversation.

As we meet weekly, we invite His Presence.  
He always join us.
Every time.

For the previous three years, I have participated in the MyOneWord challenge.  Peace was my first word.  At that time, I was experiencing much turmoil within my career.  Looking back, I now know (yes, hindsight is 20/20) the Lord placed that turmoil in my life to teach me lessons that only experience could have taught.  Through that word Peace, I overcame that turmoil and began a relationship with God unlike any I had ever had before.

Now, on my fourth word, I continue to embrace all  my words:  peace, quiet, fit, smile.

Peace unto you.  Really.  Unto YOU.

Blessings and peace, my friend.

Book Talk: Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World

This was originally posted on my book review blog.

Just call me Martha...or a Mary-Wanna-Be...or a Martha Mary-ily.  Just not there, am I?  When I asked my Sunday evening Discipleship Training class which they thought I am...they smiled first. 

I knew what they were going to say.  "I'm a Martha, aren't I?"

Heads shook up and down. 

Yes.

Joanna Weaver's Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World spoke to me. She delves deeply into the relationships among Mary, Martha, Lazarus, Jesus, and herself.  Full of references to other writers and stories that solidify each chapter's topic.

I read this one because the Women's Bible Cafe Book Club via Facebook had chosen it for their nonfiction selection of the month.  Upon posting, the hostess stated she had read this one for the third time.  Now I understand why.  The book is just full, page after page, of wonderful words promoting our Lord and Savior.  I wish you could see the copy of this book that has become mine...annotations on nearly every page.

I so enjoy such books, for they encourage me to spend time...days, even weeks with characters of the Bible.  I keep hearing myself telling my classes that often we read the Bible too fast...so much often happens within even just a few verses.  Don't you wish the Bible was a much longer work with so many of those details added?  That is what Heaven is all about.

Okay...the Martha in me can check off reading this book from my to-do list.  The Mary in me hopes to revisit pages and marinate on the many nuggets that lie within them and share a story or anecdote with either  my Sunday School or the above mentioned Discipleship Training class.  Yes, a nice blend of service and devotion.  Maybe, just maybe, I will eventually be a blend of these two ladies of the Bible.

Click here for Joanna Weaver's blog, where she is hosting Word of God Speak 2014.  She is also the author of two other books, which I hope to soon add to my collection.

Happy reading!  Blessings!