The women highlighted in the Bible are an interesting bunch. Prostitutes, queens, prophetesses, ugly ducklings. Throw them all in a room together and you would have one interesting conversation. Throw them in the same book club? And well, you would have some interesting picks from today’s Christian literature.
Esther
Book pick: Risky Gospel: Abandon Fear and Build Something Awesomeby Owen Strachan
Esther is the embodiment of boldness in the Bible. After becoming queen unexpectedly, she approaches King Xerxes and boldly requests that he save her people, the Jews, from genocide. Author Owen Strachan believes all Christians can and should live fearlessly like this. In his book Risky Gospel, he calls Christians to stop living the comfortable life and start living boldly. His approach isn’t in-your-face; instead, he gently reminds the reader that we were made to live for God and because God is loving and is for us, living for him is really no risk at all.
Ruth
Book pick: Every Bitter Thing Is Sweet: Tasting the Goodness of God in All Things by Sara Hagerty
Ruth did not have it easy. She lived during a famine, her husband died young and then her mother-in-law, Naomi, tried to shoo her away. But Ruth stuck it out and by the end of her story, she is married to a wealthy man who cares for both her and Naomi. What was bitter turned sweet. Ruth would find a lot herself in the memoir Every Bitter Thing Is Sweet by Sara Hagerty. Hagerty describes her own barren situation, in the literal sense, and the joy she and her husband found in adoption. Both women’s stories are beautiful testaments of God’s redemption.
Mary Magdalene
Book pick: Move On: When Mercy Meets Your Mess by Vicki Courtney
Mary Magdalene first appears in the Bible as the demon-possessed woman whom Jesus heals (Luke 8). In turn, she becomes one of Jesus’ most devout followers. Mary Magdalene and Vicki Courtney would be friends. Courtney also knows what it’s like to live with demons, in the metaphorical sense. The author and popular speaker was an atheist before she became a believer and has felt haunted by past mistakes. In her most recent book, Move On, she encourages women to let go of their demons of sin and heartache and accept grace for their past as well as their present.
Leah
Book pick: Vainglory: The Forgotten Vice by Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung
In today’s social media-crazed world, a book about vanity could not be more timely. In her acclaimed new release Vainglory, Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung explains what vainglory is and why it is one of the seven deadly sins. This vice is not only a modern-day obsession. In the Old Testament story of Jacob, we see it played out when he tries to choose Rachel, the beautiful one, over Leah, the one with “weak eyes” (Gen. 29:17). However, ultimately Leah is the one found in Jesus’ lineage, and she is upheld as more virtuous and favored than her sister. Beauty truly lies on the inside.
Deborah
Book pick: Unstoppable: Running the Race You Were Born to Win by Christine Caine
The definition of prophet is “the ability to discern the mind and purpose of God and declare it to others.” Deborah, the fifth judge of Israel, and author and speaker Christine Caine have this gift in common. Each generation needs a prophet, someone to guide them and speak truth without sugar coating it. That’s exactly what Deborah did in the book of Judges as the go-between for God and the Israelites, and this is what Christine Caine does in her follow-up to Undaunted, Unstoppable. In it, she exhorts Christians to pass the baton of faith and remain steady and focused on the race.
*Published 12/17/14