Tommy Mann

Unexpected Love by Julie Zine Coleman is a study on “God’s heart revealed in Jesus’ conversations with women.” The book explores nine conversations that Jesus had with women during His earthly ministry; these women are Jesus’ mother, the woman with the issue of blood, the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet with her hair, the Syrophoenician woman, the woman caught in adultery, Martha, the woman at the well, Salome, and Mary Magdalene. Each chapter begins with the actual text from Scripture written out, then the author’s paraphrase of the event. I really appreciated that the Scriptural account came first, which allowed any reader not familiar with the Bible to see the biblical record first, then see the author’s thoughts. Julie’s gift for writing clearly comes through in her paraphrase of these events. After the story is set up there is a Digging Deeper section where it is obvious that the author has done an immense amount of study. In this section she includes details...

One criticism I often hear fired at Christianity is that it looks down on and oppresses women. “It is a male-dominating religion,” they say, implying that men use it like some lodge or club to rise to power while making women serve them. While there have no doubt been some periods in history in which women were looked down on or mistreated, that is no reflection on Christianity as a whole or of God’s love for both genders. In America, more women go to church than men. No matter whose poll you look at, women outnumber men in church on average of almost two to one. But beyond culture, let’s look to the Bible to see how God views women. God told Eve that her Seed would one day destroy Satan and sin; this was not a promise given to Adam (Genesis 3:15). A male-dominating religion would emphasize the work of the man over the woman. We see this promise finally carried out through Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mary is the one given credit for raising Jesus and being...