"Bible Sisters" Book Review -- and Giveaway

Bible Sisters is a rare daily devotional dedicated to the women in the Bible, and it's for all of the women of God.   There are both well-known and unknown women in it, women named and women whose names we will never know.

The devotional is numbered but not dated, which could be both a detriment or an asset.  It means that you can pick it up and start any day (not necessarily on January 1), but it also means that you need to keep track daily of where you are and how far you have come.

I loved the variety of women and their stories:  from Eve and "the first woman" (the very first readings) to tragic figures like Dinah and downright villainesses like Jezebel, from Simon's mother-in-law,  to "A Capable Wife", Jephthah's daughter and the women who were silenced in the churches.  From the last story she draws the lesson that there are times when we should ALL be silent in church, gleaning encouragements and exhortations for us from every story she shares.  This devotional is particular encouragement for women to claim their gifts, based on the stories she shares.

Some of the women have more than one entry devoted to them.  Shiprah and Puah have their story told in three parts.  Well-known women like Sarah and Miriam recur, showing different aspects of their stories.

If you are interested, leave a comment under this post on Facebook, and I will enter your name in a drawing of a copy of this book.  I highly recommend it for its scholarship and accessibility.

Bible Sisters is written by the Rev. Dr. Gennifer Benjamin Brooks, who is the Ernest and Bernice Styberg Professor of Preaching and the director of the Styberg Preaching Institute at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois.

Our Book Arrived! There's A Woman In the Pulpit

The RevGals book arrived at my door yesterday afternoon, not too long before I was supposed to leave to prepare and preach for our Saturday evening worship service.  I'll confess, though:  the night before I broke down and bought an e-copy because I couldn't stand it any more.  I had to start reading, even though I had (have) more than enough to do.

I have an essay in this book (I'm not ashamed to admit), but I haven't read as far as my essay yet.  In fact, I have just tonight gotten as far as page 58.  I had tears in my eyes when I finished reading "By Water and the Word," by my friend Jennifer Burns Lewis.  She is my friend from Western Springs:  I even met her once, when were visiting family in Chicago.  In true RevGals fashion, we took pictures of our shoes (many of us blogged anonymously back then).

Some of the women in the book are "virtual" friends:  people whose blogs I have been reading, off and on, from April of 2007 when I created my own blog with the very basic instructions from one of my stepsons:  "Go to www.blogger.com and do whatever they tell you to do."  About a month and a half later, in ignorance of the rules that said you had to be blogging for six months to join the "RevGalBlogPals" blog ring, I requested permission and became a member.  I began to "meet" other women in ministry from other traditions and other areas of the country, learning about their lives and their families and their hobbies, the joys and the struggles of ministry where-ever we were.

So, the book I now hold in my hands is a writing project, and I'm excited about that, but it's also the product of a community.  It is a virtual community which is a real community of support:  we share stories and wisdom and advice; we read each other's thoughts; sometimes we even get a chance to meet in person.

I'm excited and proud to be a small part of this book, which includes so much honesty, so much wisdom, so much diversity.  They are doors left open into our lives, and the lives of our congregations and our families, if you are curious at all.  

Should you read this book?  Yes.
Should you buy this book?  Yes.
Will you laugh?  Will you cry?
I did.

(There's a Woman In the Pulpit is available from Amazon; also check your local bookstores!)