Welcome to a non-fiction writer sharing her work which will help with our devotion time. I don't know about you, but I love the insights into God's word that different people bring. Thank you, Julie, for sharing!
Hi Everyone, I’m Julie Zine Coleman, from Annapolis, Maryland. After teaching elementary school for 20 years, I felt the Lord calling me to a full-time speaking and writing ministry. So I left my profession to earn a seminary degree in biblical studies. I’ve been writing and speaking ever since.
Tell us about your book—title and back cover blurb.
On Purpose: Understanding God’s Freedom for Women through Scripture.
Many Christian women are torn between how the church has taught traditional gender roles and the liberty they see secular society afford to women. But what if the church's conventional teachings on the place of women aren't really biblical at all? On Purpose is a serious study on the verses in the Bible that have often been interpreted to define the role of women in the church, at home, and in the workplace. Each chapter focuses on a single passage, considering what it meant to the original recipients, understanding each author’s intent, and applying its true meaning in today's cultural setting. With each chapter, Julie Coleman thoroughly reveals how the timeless principles in the Bible actually teach freedom for women. In fact, when rightly understood, these verses are a wake-up call that we are handicapping the church's role on earth by limiting women unnecessarily. Instead, men and women should be working side by side for the advancement of the kingdom of God. Written without anger or judgment, and with no agenda but to delve deep into the Bible, On Purpose is an enlightening study offering a fresh, scriptural perspective. It's time to set women free to answer God's call on their lives--and set the church free to function the way God truly desires.
Excerpt:
I was preparing for a coming women’s retreat with an area church, when I received a troubling call from their pastor. Mind you, I was not a new speaker for them and had previously received nothing but positive feedback. But the pastor was troubled about my newly published book, Unexpected Love: God’s Heart Revealed through Jesus’ Conversations with Women. The coming retreat would be drawn from the content of that book as per their request. But now he worried that my material would contradict certain positions in their doctrinal statement.
Wait . . . what?
I inquired: had he read the book? He hadn’t. But he had read the four-page introduction. I racked my brain trying to think of what was in there that could possibly be upsetting. I finally asked.
He told me, “You wrote that Jesus came to set women free.”
I was puzzled. “You don’t think that Jesus came to set women free?” I asked.
“Well, it depends on what you mean by free,” he explained. And he reminded me that God had created women to be under men’s authority from the very beginning in Genesis 1–2. So, in that sense, he reasoned, women would never be “free.” Man’s headship was God’s designed, natural order.
It was one of those conversations I would replay over and over in my head for some time. Does the creation account indicate that God designed women to be subservient? Was there a hierarchy in their relationship from the beginning? Were women created with an inherently different nature than men? We’ll turn to the first two chapters of Genesis for our answers…
Blog Question:
What freedoms do women have in the church you attend? Are there any ways in which they are limited? Are there any questions that you have on what the Bible teaches about women?
Share your social media and buy links!
You can find out more about me and my books at juliezinecoleman.com. If you sign up for my newsletter, you will receive a free gift: 15 Minutes a Day in Colossians. This is a 20-day interactive study that will take you through Paul’s letter to the Christians at Colossae 15 minutes at a time.
You can find On Purpose: Understanding God’s Freedom for Women through Scripture at amazon.com/Purpose-Understanding-Freedom-Through-Scripture/dp/0825447070/ or anywhere books are sold.
Follow me on Facebook@ julie.z.coleman
I would be happy to give away 2 signed print copies. Please advise where to send them.
Thanks so much, Christina, for the opportunity to meet your readers! Love, Julie.
Thank you, Julie, for being willing to write about such an important topic. God bless!