Walking Toward Eternity

Ascension Press has become my favorite publisher for spiritual studies.  I generically call them "Bible Studies" partially because I started with their Great Adventure Bible Timeline study.  (Then studied the Gospel of Matthew and then Acts of the Apostle.)  They are well prepared, the resources well produced and the courses have been an immense benefit to me on my personal journey of faith.

Dennis and I act as facilitators for our Thursday night group.  Working through these studies with him is just an added bonus.  (Yes, I know, I have the best husband ever.  I am so blessed that he takes his role as a Christian man seriously and endeavors to live that role daily.)

From January - March, our group began a new series that Ascension Press has, Walking Toward Eternity.  I cannot praise this program enough.  It is advertised as giving practical ways to put your faith into practice.  It is that, and so much more.  That I can extol this program having missed 5 of the 8 classes (remember this was Feb-March when my life was in chaos and I wasn't in town) is amazing.  Dennis and I are finishing up the study at home (one of the perks of being facilitators is having the DVDs readily available).  

From the Publisher:  Walking Toward Eternity: Daring to Walk the Walk is an inspiring series designed to help you live your faith more fully. Through daily prayer and meditation with Scripture (lectio divina), you will be drawn into an intimate and life- changing encounter with Christ.

Daring to Walk the Walk introduces seven key virtues and outlines practial steps for living them out in your life.

You will learn how to walk in:

• Love • Humility • Forgiveness • Prayerfulness

• Faithfulnesson• Sacrifice • Thankfulness

We completed the lesson on 'sacrifice' last night, so I've been pondering this idea the past week (as I completed the 4 different days of assignments) and have just had so much click into place from years of learning about sacrifice.  Jeff Cavins does a great job of explaining exactly what it means when someone says to 'offer it up' (a Catholic mom-ism for sure).  The connection between sacrifice and servant is so obvious but I'd never quite put them together this way.  I am certain that the lesson resonated with me because of the months of turmoil I just went through. And it has help me process and deal with all that has come my way.

It is hard to pinpoint 'the' best part of the program, but that each lesson ends with you spending time in prayer with God discerning what you need to work on, how you plan to work on it and when you will implement the plan is definitely the part that I love.  I'm great at the head knowledge of faith, but this puts it into heart/soul knowledge....conversion at it's best.

So today I'm infinitely thankful for this program and am eager for next part of this program, Engaging the Struggles of Your Heart.  We start May 30!