The Ephesus Pages Devotional: An Introduction

Greetings, 

One of my favorite things about releasing The Ephesus Pages: A Journey Begins is that there are many quotable moments in the story. While it was not my intent to do this, that is what happened and I have been seeking confirmation about doing this for a few weeks. When I asked God to give me a story that focused more on Paul and some of his Missionary Journeys, the city of Ephesus stuck out to me deeply. 

I kept asking God, "Why Ephesus", isn't it one of the more well-known cities in scripture? Well, it is, but there is a much deeper story to tell. Looking up this city in scripture and in my history books led me down the rabbit hole. Being someone who has recently confirmed that they have Moderate ADHD, this was a lot of fun to chase after. I learned a great deal and I still have not even grasped the surface of how deep this journey will take me. However, one thing is clear to me, there are topics covered in this story that really do matter. 

So... Here is the deal! Instead of cramming out ten more episodes before the end of February for the second part of The Ephesus Pages: Mysteries in Ephesus, I decided to add some devotional content to the story first. This does not mean that I'm going to leave the story behind, it just means there will be more than just a story to experience. My goal is to write a devotional aspect for each episode that has been published and then to also record a short video for social media. I will write these as quick as possible but, I must also keep my focus on finishing my 2025 novel, The Hope of Inheritance, as well.  

To write these out, I will be selecting quotes from the story as it is and then turning them into devotionals. The quotes in the story I will be using were inspired by scripture and by personal experiences that I wove into the details of the protagonists as they are learning to grow their faith. It is a really exciting time because this will effectively bring me back to where I started back in 2015 with Ahavah Letters for the Journey, which was the first book I wrote. My hope is that the journey characters like John Mark and Aristarchus are making will offer encouraging words to those who read the story. 

There is much more to say on this, and lots of work still left to be done, but I'm excited to step into this world and am encouraged that I can combine my stories with scripture in this way. For now, I've got to design a few things to get started but I have already selected the quote from the prologue that will become the foundation for the first devotional. This is going to be a journey, and the quotes I focus on will cover some deep topics that are interwoven into the pages of The Ephesus Pages: A Journey Begins.

Thanks again for visiting The Gathering Room, 

See you in the Pages, 

MJE