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4.31 AVERAGE
4.31 AVERAGE
I found this book enlightening in a way that many books aren't. First of all, I have become a huge fan of Francine Rivers in the past year or so. I first read her book A Voice in the Wind and was blown away that there were Christian books that weren't written Amish. If you get my gist. When I learned that Francine had written a series of novellas that were actually about women that were in the Bible I jumped at the opportunity to read it. The thoughts and the relationships that were written about in this book were amazingly real and thought provoking. From Tamar to Mary, I hung on every word. My joy and excitement about these characters have followed me through to me reading the Bible and it has made my faith stronger in a small way. Thank you Francine Rivers!
Tamar. Rahab. Ruth. Bathsheeba. Mary. Francine Rivers expands on the stories of these women in the Bible with the aim of bringing us closer to God. By peering into the hearts and minds of these women, we can see the overarching narrative of Jesus with themes of redemption and restoration. The Bible study portions after each women's story were a good supplement for digging deeper.
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
This collection of novellas brings insight into the lives of five women who are named in the lineage of Jesus Christ. These were ordinary women, yet God chose them to accomplish His purpose in history and bring about a greater good than they could have imagined!
The individual novellas are titled: Unveiled (Tamar), Unashamed (Rahab), Unshaken (Ruth), Unspoken (Bathsheba), and Unafraid (Mary).
Tamar’s boldness, determination, and unconditional loyalty to her family; Rahab’s and Ruth’s simple, unshakable faith in the God of Israel despite being foreigners; Bathsheba’s growth in both character and faith in the face of incredible struggles and high stakes; and Mary’s journey to understanding her son’s true purpose on this earth — they all inspire me to live as they did, trusting in God wholeheartedly and striving to do His will in everything.
Always worth a re-read!
This book has taken me much longer than normal to read. I’m not quite sure why, but perhaps because I had to sit with some of the stories longer to really think about how much truth I found in them. One reason I had to sit longer with these stories is because I have listened to The Bible Binge podcast which has covered most (if not all) of these stories. Listening to them bring levity and context to these stories (in their hilariously informative manner) on their podcast made reading this book interesting because I think the book greatly romanticized and glossed over some cultural realities and made these “love stories” too neat and tidy. Granted, God regularly brings good out of tragedy, but these situations weren’t as polished and black and white as Rivers paints them to be.