Jennifer Devlin remembers going through the motions. Growing up in First Baptist Church, Springfield, Va., she was active in Sunday School and Vacation Bible School and was baptized when she was 10. But Devlin, now a member of Mount Zion Baptist Church, Huntsville, in Madison Baptist Association, said she was in her early 20s before she realized the real meaning of walking with Christ.
“I knew I wasn’t going to go to hell, but I wasn’t living in victory at all,” Devlin said. “Jesus was in my hip pocket when I needed Him, but He certainly wasn’t Lord of my life.”
Finding a passion for God through studying His Word is the focus of her book “Life Principles for Christ-Like Living.” The 12-week Bible study, released in December 2006, is part of AMG Publisher’s “Following God” series.
“My prayer is that the reader will see the big picture in that the whole Bible is useful in understanding how to live our lives today,” she said. “I know exactly how to minister to the complacent in the church, because I’ve been there.”
Avoiding complacency
The author and speaker has encouraged women at conferences in Brazil, Guatemala and Cuba and throughout the United States to live fully for Christ. And while “Life Principles for Christ-Like Living” is for women and men, Devlin admits women may enjoy the study more. “There are stories about my life that women would clearly relate to a little more,” she said.
Attending a Bible study taught by a military wife at Albrook Air Base in Panama in 1995, Devlin said she began to see how complacent she was. Then age 24, her husband was stationed at Fort Clayton and the couple’s first child had recently been born.
“We had just started a study on Romans, and God really took the Book of Romans, put it right in front of me and said ‘Hello, I’m speaking to you,’” Devlin said.
She said a disciplined study of God’s Word transformed her life. Devlin realized then that God wanted her to show other women how to find the same kind of life change through the Word. “I feel at home when I’m speaking to women and encouraging them,” she said.
Devlin’s work with women hasn’t gone unnoticed at Mount Zion Baptist, where Minister of Education and Administration Mike Davis teaches a coed class for 40 year olds with her. She also helped the church create a ministry called Women of Zion, which focuses on women growing in the Word of God through small-group studies, book discussion groups, programs and fellowship.
Davis noted that Devlin not only has had a lot of experience teaching and working with small groups but she also has a lot of spiritual insight.
“She has a passion and understanding for women, particularly their situations in life,” he said. “I think she relates well to women.”
Devlin believes her experience of not walking in glory, along with the daily challenges she and other women face, has helped in her ministry. “We (women) have so many different things tugging at us every day. You look at the different roles women have in their homes, their communities and even the church. I look at the women that we worship with every Sunday, all of us, collectively, and we’re weary.”
As a result of the many demands on them, Devlin said women frequently struggle with finding time for God. “I think that is so much of a challenge for women and that is really the first step to complacency,” she said.
For more information, visit www.ministryforlife.com or call 256-509-3865. To purchase her book, visit www.amazon.com or www.christianbook.com.
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