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A review by reydeam
Wicked Women of the Bible by Ann Spangler
4.0
ENTER TO WIN. A COPY OF THIS BOOK, LINK at bottom of this review, ends September 25, 2015.
My thoughts: It has been difficult for me, in the past, to understand the actions of certain women in the Bible; their way of life boggled my perspective. And it's sad to say, but beyond a few - Mary, Ruth, Esther, and Deborah - there were not too many women of biblical times that I admired or thought about much. This was a shortcoming for me because God has a reason for placing each woman in the Scriptures. And because of my limited understanding and narrow perspective, His reasons would, at times, be lost on me. One area of my thinking that I needed to readjust was to remind myself that these women were fallen humans just like you and me. They errored, and made some horrible mistakes. Some of those mistakes were huge, and many I couldn't quite grasp. But all their mistakes were used for the good of God. This is quite an incredible thing about God, he uses those who are wicked along with those who are "wicked good".
Yes, my life perspective filtered how I viewed the women in the Bible. At times my perspective made me critical, shocked, and/or confused. But once I started to have understanding of the culture and times for which they lived in, well, I was better able to view them with a lens not so clouded by my own life experience formed by the times that I am living in and the culture that surrounds me.
Wicked Women of the Bible helped me to push aside my own culture and time influenced lens while bringing into focus the lens of the Biblical times and culture. This has been accomplished by how each chapter is laid out with the unfolding of the reimagined stories of twenty wicked and "wicked good" biblical women (one chapter/woman), a brief section of the times, and a takeaway section which includes questions designed for individual or group study. I enjoyed the perspectives, insights, facts and questions to ponder. I liked the format a whole lot; it was easily accessible, informative and engaging
Each chapter enriched me and gave me further understanding. But with that said, I would say that this is more of a devotional type book for me versus a study that requires me to dig deeply into the Scriptures. This is not a negative by any means because this style worked very well for me. I really liked that I could set the book down after reading one chapter, and feel that her story was complete. This chapter style made it very easy to pick the book back up again when I came a cross one of the women during a reading of Scripture. So yes, I do think this book lends itself beautifully for a devotion type reading. But it is also perfect as a companion to a study that is taking you through the scriptures book by book...or a study where you come across one or all of the women featured in this book. You could also read this book chapter by chapter, and then pause at the end of each chapter to take the time to dig into the Scriptures where each woman's story is told. Also, Wicked Women of the Bible would be an excellent choice for a book discussion group. There really are several ways to use this book. With that all said, I would not recommend reading this book by itself if you do not already have a grasp on the Biblical account of the women featured within these pages. You need to be familiar with the Scriptures first and foremost before diving into a reimagined type story, that's my belief. I encourage you to be at least somewhat familIar with each woman's story within the Bible; there are scripture references as to where these women's stories are told,these references can be found under the heading The Times. Then, once you're familiar with the women's story in Scripture, enrich yourself further by reading each woman's reimagined story contained in this book.
The reimagined stories of each woman was by far the most insightful for me. Each story gave me a fresh perspective to consider; dimensions that I did not see before were added to my understanding. While I love learning Biblical and cultural facts, it's the perspective written - the woman's story - that I really did find to be most helpful. Don't get me wrong, the facts and cultural knowledge are very important as they add dimension too, but the reimagined perspective helped me to see these women's stories in a fuller view. The perspectives also seemed stay true to God's Word which is very important to me.
Bottom line: Engaging, insightful and informative look at twenty Biblical women that is easily accessible with a perspective that gave me a fuller view of each of their lives. I came away from Wicked Women of the Bible enriched.
~ ~ ~
ibeeeg (Polishing Mud Balls)
http://ibeeeg.blogspot.com/2015/09/wicked-women-of-bible-by-ann-spangler.html
My thoughts: It has been difficult for me, in the past, to understand the actions of certain women in the Bible; their way of life boggled my perspective. And it's sad to say, but beyond a few - Mary, Ruth, Esther, and Deborah - there were not too many women of biblical times that I admired or thought about much. This was a shortcoming for me because God has a reason for placing each woman in the Scriptures. And because of my limited understanding and narrow perspective, His reasons would, at times, be lost on me. One area of my thinking that I needed to readjust was to remind myself that these women were fallen humans just like you and me. They errored, and made some horrible mistakes. Some of those mistakes were huge, and many I couldn't quite grasp. But all their mistakes were used for the good of God. This is quite an incredible thing about God, he uses those who are wicked along with those who are "wicked good".
Yes, my life perspective filtered how I viewed the women in the Bible. At times my perspective made me critical, shocked, and/or confused. But once I started to have understanding of the culture and times for which they lived in, well, I was better able to view them with a lens not so clouded by my own life experience formed by the times that I am living in and the culture that surrounds me.
Wicked Women of the Bible helped me to push aside my own culture and time influenced lens while bringing into focus the lens of the Biblical times and culture. This has been accomplished by how each chapter is laid out with the unfolding of the reimagined stories of twenty wicked and "wicked good" biblical women (one chapter/woman), a brief section of the times, and a takeaway section which includes questions designed for individual or group study. I enjoyed the perspectives, insights, facts and questions to ponder. I liked the format a whole lot; it was easily accessible, informative and engaging
Each chapter enriched me and gave me further understanding. But with that said, I would say that this is more of a devotional type book for me versus a study that requires me to dig deeply into the Scriptures. This is not a negative by any means because this style worked very well for me. I really liked that I could set the book down after reading one chapter, and feel that her story was complete. This chapter style made it very easy to pick the book back up again when I came a cross one of the women during a reading of Scripture. So yes, I do think this book lends itself beautifully for a devotion type reading. But it is also perfect as a companion to a study that is taking you through the scriptures book by book...or a study where you come across one or all of the women featured in this book. You could also read this book chapter by chapter, and then pause at the end of each chapter to take the time to dig into the Scriptures where each woman's story is told. Also, Wicked Women of the Bible would be an excellent choice for a book discussion group. There really are several ways to use this book. With that all said, I would not recommend reading this book by itself if you do not already have a grasp on the Biblical account of the women featured within these pages. You need to be familiar with the Scriptures first and foremost before diving into a reimagined type story, that's my belief. I encourage you to be at least somewhat familIar with each woman's story within the Bible; there are scripture references as to where these women's stories are told,these references can be found under the heading The Times. Then, once you're familiar with the women's story in Scripture, enrich yourself further by reading each woman's reimagined story contained in this book.
The reimagined stories of each woman was by far the most insightful for me. Each story gave me a fresh perspective to consider; dimensions that I did not see before were added to my understanding. While I love learning Biblical and cultural facts, it's the perspective written - the woman's story - that I really did find to be most helpful. Don't get me wrong, the facts and cultural knowledge are very important as they add dimension too, but the reimagined perspective helped me to see these women's stories in a fuller view. The perspectives also seemed stay true to God's Word which is very important to me.
Bottom line: Engaging, insightful and informative look at twenty Biblical women that is easily accessible with a perspective that gave me a fuller view of each of their lives. I came away from Wicked Women of the Bible enriched.
~ ~ ~
ibeeeg (Polishing Mud Balls)
http://ibeeeg.blogspot.com/2015/09/wicked-women-of-bible-by-ann-spangler.html