Understanding Purpose: Women of Faith Study Guide Series

By Carolyn Custis James

Women of Faith, renowned for their unique combination of personality and truth, offer fresh new messages in their fourth series of popular topical study guides. Titles include:

• Receiving God's Goodness
• Experiencing Spiritual Intimacy
• Contagious Joy
• Understanding Purpose

Each study guide, teeming with insights and quotes from the conference speakers provides twelve weeks of Bible study, a leader's guide for small groups, and a special take-home reminder for each week's lesson.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release date: Jul 23, 2006
• ISBN: 9781418583583

Carolyn Custis James

Carolyn Custis James (MA, Estudios Bíblicos) viaja extensivamente como una hablante popular para las conferencias de las mujeres, iglesias, colegios, seminarios, y otras organizaciones cristianas. Su organización del ministerio, Whitby Forum, promueve la discusión bíblica pensativa para ayudar los hombre y las mujeres para combinan las fuerzas en servir dios a juntos. Nació en Oregon, desarrolló su negocio propio de programas de computadora en Oxford, Inglaterra, antes de trasladarse a Orlando, Florida, con su esposo y hija.

Book preview

9781418507114_epdf_0002_001

UNDERSTANDING

PURPOSE

9781418507114_epdf_0002_002

BY

CAROLYN

CUSTIS JAMES

FOREWORD BY

SHEILA WALSH

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Special thanks to my husband, Frank; Judy Nelson; Milli Jacks; Alexis McElhinney; Amy Lauger; Robert, Erik, and Andrew Wolgemuth; Lori Jones; and the many friends who prayed.

Copyright © 2006 Carolyn Custis James

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotation in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee by Thomas Nelson, Inc., P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, Tennessee 37214.

Thomas Nelson, Inc. titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fundraising, or sales promotional use. For information, please email SpecialMarkets@ ThomasNelson.com.

Published in association with the literary agency of Wolgemuth & Associates, Inc.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, Copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked GNT are taken from The Holy Bible, Good News Translation in Today’s English Version—Second Edition. Copyright © 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson, copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 1-4185-0711-3

Printed in the United States of America

06 07 08 09 EB 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

CONTENTS

Foreword

Introduction—Does One Size Really Fit All?

Finding My Purpose

In a Broken World

With a Little Help from Oprah

As a Daughter of Eve

On God’s A-Team

Pursuing My Purpose

At the Feet of Rabbi Jesus

In the Trenches

On the Front Lines

Behind the Scenes

Living My Purpose

In the Home

In the Church

In the World

Awakening the Warrior in Me

Leader’s Guide

About the Author

FOREWORD

God knew what he was doing from the very beginning.

He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son.

— Romans 8:29 MSG

Over the last ten years, as I have traveled across America with Women of Faith, I have had the opportunity to speak to over three million women in conferences across the nation. Our conference theme changes each year—it may be grace, hope, or faith—but the central message is the same: God sees you just as you are, he loves you just the way you are, and he has a purpose for you.

At these conferences, I have had the pleasure of talking to many of the women that I meet at my book table, and I’ve joyfully discovered that I am not alone in my quest to find out what on earth God had in mind when he created Eve, the very first woman. Now there is an influential woman!

Before Adam and Eve sinned, they would never have questioned their purpose. Their lives were consumed with loving God and each other. They were living the purpose of every man and woman ever created. But when sin entered the world, so too did questions, the most primal of all being: What is my purpose? Why am I here?

Even for those of us who love God, we often question what our purpose is. Perhaps that is because we have confused purpose with what we do, as opposed to who we are. When God walked and talked with Adam and Eve, the delight they all experienced was in the relationship—not in a long list of tasks well done.

One of the legacies of sin is that we all experience a vacuum inside. Even in our best moments, there is a sense that there has to be more. This is the distant memory of Eden, as deep as the marrow in our bones. Our natural tendency, particularly as women, is to try and fill this void with doing something. Even if we are already over-committed, we try and fit in one more thing and end up worn out. Living a life of purpose may require all we have, but it is not intended to leave us burned out, dissatisfied, or feeling far away from God.

Perhaps we also question our purpose, imagining that if we were living it, there would be no sense of frustration and weariness at times. Christ came to restore our humanity, but we still live in a fallen world. Until we see him face to face, we will all experience moments of pain and sadness. So how then do we define a life of purpose?

As you begin this study, it is my prayer that you will catch a glimpse of the depth of God’s love for you and that you will joyfully embrace the true purpose of every woman—to love God with all we have and are and allow that love to overflow to others.

God bless you!

Sheila Walsh

INTRODUCTION

DOES ONE SIZE REALLY FIT ALL?

In 2002, the subject of purpose became a headliner with the release of Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose Driven Life. The book broke all sorts of sales records, skyrocketing to the bestseller list where it held its place at the top for months. Men and women everywhere, both young and old, had their noses buried in this book, searching for answers to one of the most basic questions a human being can ask—What on earth am I here for? In Atlanta, even a desperate fugitive from the law stopped long enough to listen as his hostage, Ashley Smith, read aloud to him portions from Rick’s book, putting purpose in the headlines again.

Our study narrows the focus from this wider search for our purpose as human beings to ask another question—What s God’s purpose for me as a woman?

To be honest, this isn’t always the easiest topic for us to discuss. Raise the subject of a