Bible BFFs

Starting last Wednesday night for Bible Study, I started talking with the girls about each woman mentioned in Matthew 1 in the lineage of Jesus.  Each week we're taking one woman & just talking about what we know about her from what's in the Bible & how we can learn from her life.  

This is one of my all-time favorite things to study!  After reading (some of...I still need to finish) the Lineage of Grace series by Francine Rivers a few years ago, I became so intrigued by these five women.  Women were not included in genealogies during this time period, so just that fact means something pretty incredible is going on here.  Not only that, but think about these women: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, & Mary.  Most of them don't have the cleanest of slates.  And I love this fact.  It's such a beautiful picture...Jesus did not come to save only the people who've lead such perfect lives that it makes you feel so incredibly inadequate.
He came for sinners.  

These women sinned...just like everyone else in the Bible besides Jesus.  The stories of these five women contain scandal, prostitution, adultery, lies, deceit, & fear...but they also contain incredible courage & a faith that amazes me.

{I actually started writing this post intending to write about Joshua...but then I got a little sidetracked on these chicks, so my friend Josh will have to wait until tomorrow.}

#20. the knowledge that I am not the only one who fails.

#21. having a Savior who accepts welcomes me - flawed as I am.

#22. times when the Bible becomes real to me.