What a joy to announce that All of Me releases today and is available for purchase/order at all major outlets (links to order below). While I usually post about academic things I’m involved in here, I wanted to take a detour to highlight this significant accomplishment by my wife and partner-in-life-and-ministry, Cheryl Marshall.
This project has been about 5 years in the making. In it, Cheryl aims to encourage women to re-orient and view their lives as willing sacrifices, wholly devoted to God in every area of life. We were created for worship and, in Christ, we have been re-created for worship. Using Rom 12:1-2 as a framework, she walks readers through why and how they should offer the totality of their lives to the Lord in worship and devotion.
One thing I love about the book is that it seeks to help believers understand that worship, by God’s design, happens not only on Sundays in the congregation (although that is VERY important), but on Monday through Saturday during the week. Every hour, occasion, and situation–even the hard ones and the mundane ones–are tools for a life of worship to our Redeemer.
See above for the the table of contents. In each chapter Cheryl begins with a powerful, inspiring story of a woman who lived wholly devoted to God (often at great sacrifice to herself). From there she takes a short phrase from Rom 12:1-2 and explains and develops its significance and implications in a conversational but theologically rich way. One thing I should point out about All of Me–it is NOT strictly-speaking a “Bible study” on Rom 12:1-2. Rather, it is a book about whole-life worship that uses this biblical text as its guide. All of Me can be be read and studied on your own, or in a mentoring-discipling relationship, or as a group study or book club. A study guide provided in the last part of the book can be useful for personal reflection, meditation, and application–again, helpful for individual use or in group discussions. By the time you’re finished, you’ll have a richer understanding of this biblical text, but also of the concept of living the rest of your days as a whole-life worshiper of the Triune God.
While I’m commending this new book for order (see below), let me also encourage you to make use of a few other resources from Cheryl Marshall. I’ve linked those below the order buttons. My prayer for myself, and for you as you read and/or listen to this book and resources, is that our hearts will resonate with the final verse of “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”:
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
BIBLICAL LANGUAGES 