What we do:
Since the early 1990’s we have provided encouragement to grow in faith and relationship with the triune God by using a prayer journal that facilitates the discipline of regular reading of Scripture. The focus of the readings is getting to know God by how He reveals himself to be, and by growing to trust Him in our personal lives. The original prayer journal was titled “Establishing God’s Peace” (EGP) and was put together by a small group of women who were doing inductive Bible studies together. Over time, they recognized the need to let what they were learning permeate their entire personal lives, not just their intellect.
How it spread:
Others began to ask for a copy of the EGP journal when they began to observe how God was growing faith in those using this method. Soon the need to introduce the prayer journal in a group setting was evident. Thus began the writing of a Bible study guide to accompany the journal. A group of twelve ladies began to meet weekly to pray together and pound out what it would look like to trust God in their day-to-day lives. Verna McCrillis and Beth Warlick began with looking at different Scriptures that defined what God’s peace looked like and writing questions to lead the group to discover those truths. This developed into an in-depth discipleship and mentoring curriculum that thousands of women (and later men) have participated in. EGP students’ lives were changed immensely both while being a part of a class or being mentored one-on-one to use the prayer journal as a tool for spiritual growth.
About the Study:
The Establishing God’s Peace Bible Study now titled “Living Out the Gospel” is designed to encourage us to get to know God in a personal, intimate way, influencing our whole life. It starts with learning to read the Bible as a personal love letter written to us from God. God wants to unfold His character to us. He wants us to know how He has worked in the past in others’ lives. He wants us to see how even from the beginning of time, we were in His heart and His plan.
The weekly lessons are systematic, inductive Bible studies. Observation, interpretation and application appear in every lesson. What makes it a little unique is that the lessons are designed to be done in a group setting rather than as homework. The majority of the lessons are topical, but some lessons look at an individual book of the Bible. To assist in learning how to do inductive study, different tools and charts are presented throughout the course with explanation and practice for using them.
Which leads us to the Scripture and prayer Journal, Behold:
The only “homework” is encouragement to spend time each day with God, reading His word with an eye for the things He wants uw to know about Himself. The Behold, A Gospel Journey of Growing Near to God in Scripture and Prayer provides a venue to write what God is showing each person from the reading that day about His character. We can then use those notes to praise Him both privately and together in community. As we grow in knowing God we will begin to discover areas where we struggle to trust Him to be true to His character. Peace through Grace, one of the sections in the Prayer Journal offers a place to recognize our wrong thinking and to ask God to exchange it for His truth.
We are so convinced that growing in relationship with the Father, Christ and the Spirit is the most important thing, that we are willing to walk with someone for as long as necessary to encourage them on this journey. The tools and study are designed in a way that invites each person to turn around and share it with someone else. Hence, it has been used by churches as a mentoring and discipleship tool as well as a Bible study program.
Establishing God's Peace 