Welcome to the EGP Community
In the fall of 1995 Beth Warlick and I taught the first Establishing God's Peace course. We had six lessons in mind and about 12 ladies who had signed up for the study. Each week after teaching the lesson we would get together and rewrite the last lesson based on feedback and what actually happened in class. During the rest of the week we spent hours praying and preparing the lesson for the next week. I still have fond memories of that group of ladies and their desire to integrate their faith into every part of their lives.
When we finished the six lessons the ladies begged us to write more lessons so they could keep going deeper. As the Spirit ministered to our hearts, we shared what God was teaching us. Charts and word pictures emerged as we sought to communicate in practical ways. These tools helped us discover how to get to the heart of what our actions were showing that we believed about God. The movement of God within the women in our class was so profound that we sensed we had stumbled on something that the body of Christ desperately needed. Beth and I had both been teaching women’s Bible studies for the previous 20 years and we had never before seen such growth happen in our classes at such a rapid rate.
It was a beginning of a journey of encouraging others, and being encouraged by them, to drill down into knowing God intimately – by discovering Him in Scripture, and recording our discoveries in our EGP prayer journals. Sharing those things with an encouraging community and praising God together using His own words, brought new depths of understanding and trust. In our weekly classes we covered different topics that could be barriers to knowing God, looking to see what God’s Word had to say.
The following year we had six other classes piloting what we had put together and giving us feed back. Maybe you were part of one of those original classes? Or maybe down the road, you benefited from the feedback others gave. Many of you have shared that these studies and the Establishing God’s Peace prayer journal have had a powerful effect on your own journey of faith. I am eternally grateful to the Lord for the impact on my life, and on yours as well. It is all God, all Jesus, all His Word, all the Spirit. To God be the glory.
Three years ago God really pressed on my mind that the Living Out the Gospel study (a combination of studies from the first and second semesters of EGP) and the prayer journal (now titled Gospel Journey) that accompanies it, are treasures to be shared with more of His children. The material has been poured over and edited by thousands of people so I sensed it was time to present it for publication.
It is a delight to report that the newly updated Living Out the Gospel is available for sale on Amazon!
https://www.amazon.com/Living-Out-Gospel-Verna-McCrillis/dp/1090415508/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=Living+Out+the+Gospel%2C+McCrillis&qid=1560442600&s=gateway&sr=8-5
God had also put on my heart that we need an updated Scripture and prayer journal and this fall (2018) I had the joy of working with a graphic designer and publisher to build a beautiful rendition of the prayer journal, Behold: A Gospel Journey of Draw near to God through Scripture and Prayer (spiral bound and in color). All the original pieces are still there but presented in new form, with tabbed sections and coil binding. It is not yet available on Amazon buy you can purchase it in our
shop.
The Behold, Sixteen Week Version is available on Amazon in paperback form.
https://www.amazon.com/Behold-Journey-Drawing-through-Scripture/dp/1793320012/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Behold%2C+Sixteen+Week&qid=1560304457&s=gateway&sr=8-1
Verna McCrillis
December 2018