Chapters 1-5

Ladies,
We are off to a great start. We had a good turn out today and I hope you think we had a good discussion, too. For those of you who couldn't make it, here's a recap.
Last year, we did a great study on God's grace. It was a wonderful study for our group but it was totally different from the study of Paul's life and mission that we began today. We will focus mainly on one man's life and the unexpected paths he finds himself on as a child of God. There are plenty of opportunities for you to be blessed by this study if you will allow God to have free reign in your life.
Chapter One is entitled "Set Apart from Birth". Beth Moore introduces us to Saul through the description of a typical circumcision ceremony in Saul's day. We learn that the Orthodox Jew has four main realms of focus: the circumcision that represents the covenant of Abraham, the marriage relationship, the study of the Torah, and the performance of good deeds. These are the things that drive the Orthodox Jew. We learned from our reading that the homes of the devout Jew of Paul's generation were marked by a mezuzah, a container that housed specific verses from Deuteronomy. We commented that it might be nice to have a specific marking that would identify us as Christians. (Unless, of course, you catch one of us on a day that we really need that whole grace thing that we talked about last year.) I think it is important to understand the type of home and upbringing that Saul most likely had for us to understand how far Paul really had to come. The same may be true for some of us. We may have come from some pretty crazy circumstances, as far from God as possible, but the good news is that we still belong to Him, the cross is big enough for whatever background you came from, and best of all, God has a plan for your life.