The Gentle Savior

Seeing Jesus Through the Eyes of the Women Who Met Him

The Words of Jesus to Women

September 24, 2011

This Words of Jesus to Women handout lists most of the significant statements Jesus made to or about women in the Gospels. You can use it in a number of ways:

 1. In conjunction with the introductory lesson of The Gentle Savior, try to guess who Jesus was speaking to or about.

 2. In the final lesson of The Gentle Savior:

– Use it for review, and try to remember whom Jesus was speaking to or about.
– Consider which of these statements you would like Jesus to say to or about you.
– Consider which of these statements the women in your life need to hear Jesus saying to them.

3. Even if you’re not using the Bible study, read through the statements and consider what you can learn about Jesus from his words to women. Now, match up the statements with the women being spoken to or about (Need the answer sheet?).

– What do you learn about Jesus from what said to these particular women?
– What do you learn from what he did NOT say?

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RAINN Day

September 21, 2011

Here’s a little public service announcement for all my sisters. Thursday, September 22, is RAINN Day, an annual campaign by the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network to raise awareness and educate students against sexual violence on college campuses. There are a number of helpful resources on RAINN’s website at www.rainn.org regarding prevention and ways to get help if you’ve experienced sexual violence.

No one deserves sexual violence in any form. Help and healing is available. If I can help point you in the right direction, please email me at lynnbell209@gmail.com.

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Mexico, Samaria, and Some Honest Self-Reflection

September 17, 2011

Read an excerpt from the Bible study lesson on the Samaritan woman at the well.

Sisters in Ensenada

My Mexican and American sisters.

This summer once again I found myself halfway up a mountainside overlooking the beautiful Bahía Todos Santos—the Bayof All Saints—enjoying a view many Americans would pay a premium for. 

I wasn’t staying at a seaside resort, however. I was working on a dry, dusty, trash-strewn rural neighborhood situated outside Ensenada in Mexico’s Baja California. The hillside is covered with homes but not the kind most Americans could live in. Many of them are pieced together from scrap wood and tarpaper, with nothing but a thin sheet of fabric for a door. Next to these heartbreaking hovels, the 12 x 16-foot dwellings our mission teams built seem luxurious—even though they still lacked insulation and plumbing. 

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An Outrageously Extravagant Gift for Jesus

September 14, 2011

Welcome to the first entry of The Gentle Savior blog!
About once a week I’ll be posting reflections and musings here about the interactions between Jesus and women described in the Gospels. I hope this blog will be a place where we can ask questions of each other and of scripture. I won’t pretend to know and understand everything about God or about difficult issues raised in the Bible. We’ll just be honest about our questions and try to help each other understand Jesus a little better.

Lynn Bell

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While [Jesus] was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly. (Mark 14:3-5)

Why in the world would a woman do something like this?  What would compel you to take a year’s worth of earnings, buy a ridiculously expensive bottle of perfume, and then pour out its entire contents on one person?

To some of the men in the room, this act was an unfathomable mystery. All they could perceive was the frittering away of valuable resources by an irrational female. Anointing is one thing, but did she have to break the jar and use it all?

(Read More)

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