Jesus defended her choice to leave the woman’s domain for the disciples’ place beside Messiah
This series of Bible studies seeks to retell the stories of women who were divinely called and empowered to do great things. Many of them rose to the occasion, and a few very famously did not. Often, the tragedies and triumphs in their lives are missed, and their stories are told from perspectives other than with the honor and dignity they deserve.
After excavating their narratives from millennia of obfuscation, now meet the freshly restored, valiant, vivid (and sometimes villainous) women of the Bible.
A Woman Called to Discipleship
Mary of Bethany’s account reveals an emotionally sensitive and spiritually attuned disciple of Jesus, one who was ready to break through the barriers of her culture and time. Each of the scenes in her story places her at Jesus’s feet, in some of the more intimate moments in Jesus’s own life.
This thirty-page book includes the retelling of Mary of Bethany’s story, a fifteen-question Bible study, and link to a twenty-minute multi-media presentation of Mary of Bethany’s account, offering a deep appreciation for God’s work and call in and through women and encouraging us to take practical steps towards recognition and support of women in all levels and varieties of ministry and spiritual leadership today.
Close Friends and Followers
Martha, Lazarus, and Mary were all disciples of Jesus, people who loved and followed Jesus, opened their home to him, shared their table with Jesus in fellowship, and enjoyed Jesus’s friendship as well as lived by Jesus’s teaching. Each had their own unique relationship with the Lord, yet together, as a family, they displayed all the aspects of a church.
Especially the sisters, Martha and Mary, teach you and me about blessing God as a whole body of believers.
Studying the Bible, learning the doctrines of the Christian faith, do not make a person wise or strong in the faith. In fact, wisdom is not about knowing. Wisdom is about living what you know. In spiritual terms, the wise person is the one who lives wholeheartedly by the truths they know. The wise are not necessarily the PhD Bible scholar and theologian. One can know many truths, but remain unaffected.
This came home to me in a very particular way while I was reading Alan Hirsch’s and Michael Frost’s seminal book, ReJesus. Among the many wise things in this book is the concept of balance between three areas of faith:
- Orthodoxy—which is right principles, right thinking, guided by scripture.
- Orthopathy— which is right passion, right feelings, the love and joy the Bible talks about.
- Orthopraxy—which is right practice, doing good works.
Hirsch and Frost point out that when these three elements become imbalanced, we notice! Mary of Bethany’s life reveals her spiritual wisdom in how she balanced right principles, right passion, and right practice.
Nearly forty free Bible studies on a woman in the scriptures are available through signing up to the newsletter below. What’s included:
- Access to all the Bible studies that have been made available so far.
- One new study each month.
- Early announcement of new books, published by the author.
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