What do we know about women in the Bible? Research conclusion #2: Start to finish, women in the Bible push against restraints, using their God given gift of free will. From the first woman to speak in the Bible (Eve) to the last (the fortune-telling slave girl in Acts), Bible women knock on doors seeking healing, redemption and freedom—or, in the case...
Read MoreRead More
What do we know about Bible women? Research conclusion #1: Bible women, especially those who speak, are surprisingly bold. Traditionally, the view of Bible women has been they are subservient and passive—but that is like saying the earth is flat, or environmental disasters have nothing to do with climate change. Shrinking violets they are not. Immoral or moral, most step up and say...
Read MoreRead More
After four years of research, and studying every page of the Bible, we can identify ninety-three specific woman in the Bible who spoke. Some of those are individuals (seventy-eight spoke individually), and the rest are in groups. Many faith communities are bigger. Most schools are bigger. A group that size would not fill the seats in the United States Senate. A...
Read MoreRead MoreEver wonder how many words in the Bible are said by women? Several of us have just spent almost four years researching that very question...
Read MoreRead More
In the springtime, my mother would bring lilacs inside, big armfuls of them, and put them in deep burgundy glass vases. Their fresh and wild scent filled the house, wafting through screen windows that had been hand-changed, from storms to screens, only weeks before. And maybe that’s why they smelled so good. In Minnesota, springtime is earned, not taken for granted....
Read MoreRead MoreI could use Jesus in our garden this year, with all of the rain that has multiplied weeds by the thousands, if not millions—but Jesus is not a gardener. Here’s the proof, in his own words, better known as his Parable of the Sower: “A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell on the path and...
Read MoreRead More[caption id="attachment_558" align="alignright" width="300"] Sarah, in her early ‘90s, holding son Isaac.[/caption] from today’s Forward Day by Day meditations Matthew 20:26, 28. Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant…just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve. I admit it. This reflection is a tribute, a tribute to older women in their seventies and...
Read MoreRead MoreMatthew 15:26-27. Jesus said, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” One of the most vexing stories in the New Testament—where Jesus appears cold and even rude—is among the most compelling accounts of faith in biblical...
Read MoreRead MoreMatthew 14:27. Immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” In early 2001, I was diagnosed with breast cancer, resulting in surgery and six months of chemotherapy. With that came the many side effects: hot flashes, insomnia, brain drain, weight gain, fatigue. One morning about 4:00 a.m., I awoke parched, drenched with sweat. This...
Read MoreRead MoreToday’s Forward Day by Day meditation, in which I highlight the only full mother-daughter conversation in the Bible Matthew 14:8. Prompted by her mother, [Salome] said, “Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.” And so it was done: John the Baptist—the holy and rugged prophet who had so eloquently announced the coming of Jesus—was forever and brutally...
Read MoreRead More