Women of the Bible Speak Out - Concept and Cover Reveal!

Hi Friends,

I wanted to share with you the new cover for my next book, releasing on June 1st. Here it is!

And here's the original concept for the book...

The recent #MeToo movement has given voice to millions of women struggling through experiences of gender-based harassment and/or physical violence. What’s been overlooked in this needed, new conversation is that the problem isn’t new. In fact, the Bible is filled with women who endured undeserved abuse and hardship from men—living in societies that treated them as second-class citizens, where their lives were subject to systematic male domination legally, religiously, socially, in their own families and homes.

What if the women of Scripture could speak out in a #MeToo movement of their own? 

What stories would they would tell? 

What would they reveal about God, and faith, and life? 

How did an oppressed and/or victimized woman encounter God in biblical times? How did these women keep faith when they’re bodies were considered “spoils of war” or the properties of their husbands? When they were socially outcast simply for being infertile, or being unwed? How did these women approach God? How did God meet those girls, communicate his love and goodness to them? What did they learn about God’s goodness in the midst of harshness? What can women today learn from the lives they led?

Perhaps it’s time we found out.

Wearied by Brokenness? You're Not Alone!

Hi Friends,

I'm preparing to travel too Michigan next week to record the audio version of my upcoming book, Women of the Bible Speak Out. I've never done my own audio for a book before, so this will be quite an experience!

So, as I prepare, I thought I'd share a bit that I cut from the first chapter of the new book (the chapter that looks at Eve). This includes some of the women that are covered in the various chapters of Women of the Bible Speak Out.

So, now for a bit of a preview, and a bit of hope for anyone weary of living in a broken world ... God is with you. Don't give up!

SECTION CUT:

God tells us that sin is not the end of the story. He tells us he has been working to redeem every tear, every injustice, every hurt that results from sin. We know because Eve isn’t the end of the story either. Many women come after her.

            --Sarai, who was betrayed by her husband not once but twice, and put in sexually compromising positions. She was co-holder of the covenant of redemption between God and mankind, that all nations would be blessed through her offspring.

            --Hagar, given like property to a foreign man to bear a son who was not intended to be her own. She became the mother of great nations.

            --Lot’s daughters who were offered up for the worst kind of abuse. Yet God saw them and saved them.

            --Tamar, who was cast aside when her husband died and offered no justice. She made her own justice and was blessed.

            --Hannah, who was devalued for her infertility and driven to despair. She became the mother of Samuel who would speak for God to kings and the nation of Israel.

            --Abigail, whose husband’s foolishness nearly resulted in her death. But God gave her wisdom and a future.

            --Bathesheba, who lost both a husband and a son to the arrogance of one man, who was chosen for the line of Christ himself.

            --Esther, who was dominated by a foreign rule and a foreign king, who rose to save her people.

            --Mary, who was oppressed not by man but by another woman, and was defended by Jesus himself.

            --A Samaritan woman who was so ashamed of her #MeToo past that she went to the well in the heat of the day, and encountered a savior who set her free.

            --A sinful woman, scorned by the male leaders of her people, praised by Christ with a promise of remembrance.

            --A woman caught in adultery, dragged before courts, threatened with stoning while her partner got off scot-free. Forgiven and given a new start.

            --Women at the tomb of Jesus, doubted and disbelieved, the first witnesses to the most wondrous event of all time. The first witnesses to the resurrection that redeemed us all. 

            And the list goes on. These women lived in the broken world created by Adam and Eve, and yet discovered a God of redemption and hope. They did not give up. They did not give in to hate or despair. And they stand as witnesses to us all that we need not be beaten. God stands with us. He will always stand with us.