Title: Unexpected Love
Subtitle: God's Heart Revealed in Jesus' Conversations With Women
Author: Julie Zine Coleman
Unexpected Love is nine stories from the Bible in one book. Each chapter focuses on one woman from the New Testament. These women had in person encounter with Jesus. They had life changing experiences when they met Christ. The women featured in the book may be familiar and some may be new to you. This is the chapter breakdown:
- Chapter One: John 2:1-11 (Jesus and Mary at the Wedding in Canaan)
- Chapter Two: Mark 5:21-34 (Jesus and the Hemorrhaging Woman)
- Chapter Three: Luke 7:36-50 (Jesus and the Sinful Woman)
- Chapter Four: Matthew 15:21-28 (Jesus and the Syrophoenician Woman)
- Chapter Five: John 7:53-8:11 (Jesus and the Adulterous Woman)
- Chapter Six: Luke 10:38-42 (Jesus and Martha)
- Chapter Seven: John 4:4-30 (Jesus and the Samaritan Woman)
- Chapter Eight: Matthew 20:20-28 (Jesus and Salome)
- Chapter Nine: John 20:1-18 (Jesus and Mary Magdalene)
Each chapter is broken into parts. The author begins each chapter with the account from the NIV Bible that contains the conversation that Jesus had with the woman featured in that chapter. The author then spends time summarizing and discussing the story. There is then a Digger Deeper section which helps you to understand the culture and the times better and a Food for Thought section for a more intense Bible study. There is even a section for personal journaling.
This is the kind of book that you need to read more than once. You can get so much from the book that you will need to read it twice! Reading this book about Jesus' encounters in the Bible will change your relationship with HIm. It will give you a deeper understanding and closer relationship with God.
The book is extremely well written not surprising since the author has an MA in Biblical Studies. She also has a user friendly way of writing which may come from her background as a 20 year veteran teacher of children.
You can read more about the author on her website. There are also free resources to use with this study at http://unexpectedlove.juliecoleman.org/ that would work well if you wanted to lead a small group or Bible study.
Disclaimer: I received this book for free from Thomas Nelson Publishers through their BookSneeze program in exchange for an honest review.
Dear Amy:
ReplyDeleteThank you for this positive review! And thank you for taking the time to read my book. May God use it to draw people closer to him. I appreciate your recommendation and also your mention of the resources available to groups that wish to use the book for their study. You are awesome.
Sincerely,
Julie Coleman