What Are You Reading? – Peace of God

well hi ladies happy Monday morning I hope that you're having a great start to your day so far and as you know I was recently on vacation and there was something just kind of small you know those little moments where you're where you think oh that's even like a little devotional that the Lord just sort of kind of plopped in front of me while I was on vacation and so I was with my whole family and um my nieces and I've got some nieces and nephews but one of my nieces she's three years old her name's Sarah and um she's three and she was loving there was a day we were down in Pensacola and so typically there's not a lot of waves I'm a former swimmer so I love whenever the waves are really choppy but a storm was coming in so a storm was coming in and there were more the waves were much choppier because usually it's like lake water and um and so we actually had waves you actually had to walk and like work in the water right to stay upright and Sarah was only is only three and obviously so she had to be accompanied by somebody and she was also laying on a float and it was the cutest little thing because she had her hands crossed she's laying on an inner tube and she's just staring out over the ocean and so I was with her and just holding on basically to her foot and just letting the waves just bob her up and down and we were having a good old time and she was loving going over the big waves and back down. And in that moment, it made me think about, you know, I'm working continually. I was walking, even sometimes I would potentially like essentially body block her in the sense where I would just let the tube sit up against my stomach and I would just keep walking in the opposing direction to the current. And, but she was just as content as could be just floating there. And I thought that was such a great illustration of what it can be like if we would trust and rely on the peace of God. As you know, Pat Deagle and I are in the middle of teaching the armor of God. And as we are teaching that this week, we're going to be talking about the shoes of peace and having the peace that comes peace with God because of his salvation, because of what he's provided through Christ, and then peace of God through our circumstances. And so Sarah laying there on that little inner tube and just enjoying the waves and enjoying the scene before her and not knowing that I was working underneath the water to keep her in the same place because if I had let go she would have been halfway down the beach because of the current and so that made me think about how God is our anchor how we can just soar above the turbulence in life and so because we are grounded in his word we get his peace we have his holy spirit we get his peace and so my encouragement this morning um is for you to get in a place where you are digging deeper into god's word and one of the things that i know is a little bit difficult sometimes um because our church is so big um is knowing what all is going to be going on bible study wise so at the end at the end of this video i'm going to give you kind of a little snapshot if you will of what all will be offered on all three campuses and so but I wanted to just encourage you with that little bit of of an illustration of just you know what kind of waves think about the waves and the things it could be unforgiveness it could be bitterness it could be life circumstances it could be relationships what sort of things where do you need peace and where do you go to get peace okay and one of the best ways a key to finding this peace is thankfulness which can seem so backwards in our culture and so backwards and finding peace that you need to be thankful but there is always something to be thankful for always and so colossians 3 16 says let the word of christ dwell in you richly teaching and admonishing one another and all wisdom singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God so I want you to be like Sarah I was just laying on that float just be thankful she had no idea all the work that I was doing but just be thankful just ride the waves and just be thankful and I know that that's so much easier said than done so that's your little illustration for today and then I want to encourage you that one of the ways you can do this and harness peace better is it's harder to have peace if you don't fully understand the Word of God or if you're not, you know, involved with women who are also studying God's Word. It's not impossible. You have the Holy Spirit as a companion. That is most important, but a way to encourage you and to dig deeper and to, in a way, you know, develop that fruit to prune things is a great way of doing that is through Bible study. So I'm just going to go real quick here and kind of give you some highlights on the Augusta campus. I'll talk Augusta Campus first, then Grovetown, then Belvedere. So Augusta Campus, we have a Wednesday night. We have two Wednesday night Bible studies that are happening. So we're no longer doing Tuesday evening Bible study because we know that a lot of ladies need some child care. Because we have children's activities on Wednesday night, we can offer an evening Bible study. So we have two going on. We have Mary Bridges and Donna Johnson. If you've done a Tuesday night Bible study with them, same teachers, they're just switching nights. So thank you, Mary and Donna. And they're going to be teaching the gospel on the ground by christy mclelland and that is the study i think i've referred to here on here multiple times it's so good it's about the book of acts and i'm about five lessons in because i had to pause to teach armor of god but it is fantastic it's so good it's really rich and it's taught with a very um with the the mindset of what all was going on in the early church so it's really really great and so mary and donna will be teaching that uh wednesday night bible study 6 15 to 7 30 p.m and then we also have susan katie will be teaching her draw near experiencing peace and power and god's presence this is a study she's written and if you've ever done a susan katie study you know it is full and rich with goodness and um it will just be great she's a fabulous teacher so that's wednesday evening that's starting august 16th The following week, so we start the week later, Tuesday mornings, we'll start on August 22nd, 9.30 to 11.30 a.m., same as what it's always been. Susan's also going to be teaching her Draw Near class on Tuesday mornings. I'm going to teach the Gospel on the Ground study, so we'll have that offered two different times. And then Beth Mobley will be teaching Jesus and Me. It's Experiencing the Holy Spirit as a Constant Companion. And this is an Anne Graham Lott study. So this should be fantastic. Beth, we all know Beth is a great teacher as well. So that's a study about the Holy Spirit. And then we have Precepts. They are in the Kings and Prophets series. So looking at, I believe they're in 2 Kings and then 2 Chronicles. But they're called the Kings and Prophets. And it's going to be parts 3, 4, and 5. And those are K. Arthur studies, more of that deep inductive study. And that's taught by Connie Sizemore. So we've got a great group of ladies interested in that. um at Belvedere they should be getting be beginning they haven't finalized all their plans but this will be in September so if you're a Belvedere lady you still got some time so in September they will be doing a study and their leadership team just recently met so they're working on all the details and I know it's going to be great we've got a lot of great ladies over there and then Grove Town so the Grove Town will be doing their belong that's what they call their women's ministry on Tuesday mornings what their their gathering is called belong and Maya Bright is going to teach. I know a lot of ladies are excited about this. She's going to be doing live teaching and it's for her newest study. She's like Susan Cady. She writes her studies, which is so great. And she'll be doing God of Abraham, a study on Genesis 12 through 24. So that's going to be great. And that one for Grovetown begins September 12th and they are 9 15 to 11 30 AM. So those are all the Bible studies that are coming. And, um, I hope that you can find time to participate in one and just dig deeper in the Word with fellow women and your sisters in Christ. And so just remember that the peace of God, you have peace with God knowing that you are saved through Jesus Christ, but you also have the peace of God to then ride the waves of life just like my little niece Sarah did. So I hope that you have a great rest of your Monday and please feel free to reach out if you've got more questions about Bible study. Thanks so much. Have a good one. Thank you.

Originally published at warren.church.