Healing is the name of the game in the New Testament. And nowhere is that theme better captured than by the spirit of the last female to speak in the Bible, otherwise known as the fortune-telling girl (Acts 16:16-19). Who exactly was she? Most people haven’t heard of her. Her name was never mentioned in scripture, she was a slave, and Luke, the...
Read MoreRead More
2 Epiphany, Year B, the Rev. Lindsay Hardin Freeman, January 19, 2015 “Lead Gently, Lord, and Slow” Our lessons today are all about God finding us and being found by him. And two people in today’s lessons, Samuel and Nathaniel, help us see how that happens. First, Samuel. This is the boy who will grow up to be the last judge in Israel;...
Read MoreRead More
Just heard yesterday that Bible Women: All Their Words and Why They Matter has won a gold medal from Illumination Book Awards in the category of Bible Study. We're excited about this, and have lots of people to thank, especially those from Forward Movement, the Episcopal Church Women, and the research team. And those Bible women! It would seem they...
Read MoreRead More
I was an editor for twenty years. Editing other peoples words, and sometimes their thoughts, though never their souls (a few of their souls needed editing and mending, but that’s God’s responsibility, not mine). And in that time, I learned how vulnerable writers can be when they put thoughts and words to paper. It’s tough. Yet as Christians, we are called...
Read MoreRead More
Elizabeth’s story (Read Luke 1) We hear a great deal about Jesus this time of year. But Advent is about preparing the way for Jesus, and no one did that better than John the Baptist this time of year--and it all started with his mother, Elizabeth. What do we know about her? Consider her story...
Read MoreRead More
Movie stars have the Oscar awards, world leaders the Nobel prizes, TV the Emmy awards...
Read MoreRead More
Readers often want to know how this book came about—and here’s the answer: Several years ago, I’d just finished a book, The Scarlet Cord: Conversation with God’s Chosen Women, telling the stories of twelve Bible women from a first-person perspective. Because women in the Bible tend not to say much, I filled in historical details where possible: why they took the...
Read MoreRead More
Who were the ten women in the Bible who spoke the most? While it's tempting to suggest some of the best known women in the Bible (Mary Magdalene; Mary, Sarah, Eve, etc.) none of them come close to being on the list. None of the women in the New Testament make the cut, and many of the top ten may...
Read MoreRead More
Who knew that these words—"The handwriting is on the wall"—center around the last woman to be quoted in the Old Testament? We hear the phrase in boardrooms, schoolrooms and church meetings. Who knew it even came from the Bible...
Read MoreRead More
What do we really know about witches? Tragically, throughout much of history, witches have been tortured—and in the name of religion. Yet the only witch in the Bible, the Witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28:3-25), was a kind and compassionate soul who brought light to a troubled king. Her story, unknown to most contemporary Christians and Jews, has been noted with great...
Read MoreRead More