Woman

Woman

DIANE SILLAMAN

AuthorHouse™

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: 1-800-839-8640

© 2012 by Diane Sillaman. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 01/25/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4685-4650-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-4649-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-4648-4 (ebk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012901300

Printed in the United States of America

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Chapter One

THE BEGINNING

Discussion Questions

Chapter Two

VERY GOOD TIMES

Discussion Questions

Chapter Three

PARADISE LOST

Discussion Questions

Chapter Four

CONSEQUENCE AND PROMISE

Discussion Questions

Chapter Five

THE WOMAN LOOKS FOR HELP

Discussion Questions

Chapter Six

GOD SEES AND KNOWS

Discussion Questions

Chapter Seven

GOD ANNOUNCES TO A WOMAN

Discussion Questions

Chapter Eight

NABAL AND ABIGAIL

Discussion Questions

Chapter Nine

NABAL AND ABIGAIL PART 2

Discussion Questions

Chapter Ten

THE PROMISED SEED

Discussion Questions

Chapter Eleven

THE SEED IN EARLY LIFE

Discussion Questions

Chapter Twelve

JESUS, UNIQUE AMONG MEN

Discussion Questions

Chapter Thirteen

JESUS AND A CANAANITE WOMAN

Discussion Questions

Chapter Fourteen

A BLEEDING WOMAN’S TESTIMONY

(FROM LUKE 8:43-38)

Discussion Questions

Chapter Fifteen

AN ADULTEROUS WOMAN

(JOHN 8:1-11)

Discussion Questions

Chapter Sixteen

A SOCIAL OUTCAST

(JOHN 4)

Discussion Questions

Chapter Seventeen

THE WOMAN

WITH THE OINTMENT

(MATT. 26:6-13, MARK 14:3-9, LUKE 7:36-50, JOHN 12:1-8)

Discussion Questions

Chapter Eighteen

WOMEN AND JESUS

Discussion Questions

Chapter Nineteen

WOMAN’S ROLE

IN WINNING THE WORLD

Discussion Questions

Chapter Twenty

MY WALK WITH JESUS

Author’s Note

Chapter One

THE BEGINNING

I want you to go on a journey through time with me back several thousand years to what the Bible says is the beginning. It is dark. The earth is a nebulous mass. We sense a spirit hovering over the waters. We hear a voice saying, Let there be light! A beautiful, pure, lovely, good light shines forth. The darkness is separated from the light. The light is named Day and the darkness is named Night. The first day ever in earth’s history is complete.

The second day an expanse separates water from water, over from under. The expanse is called Sky. It is good. There is evening and there is morning and the second day ends.

The third day dry land is brought forth and plants appear all over it: beautiful, lovely, varied living green things from grasses to trees of all types, all with seeds that would reproduce each plant after its kind. All the earth formed that day was covered with lush, wonderful vegetation. Fruits, vegetables, flowers. It was all good.

The fourth day the sun, moon, and stars in all their glory were made. The moon was to govern the night, the sun to govern the day. The stars were amazing, billions in glorious array stretching far into the expanse of space. The night sky was glorious. These heavenly bodies made possible the tracking of time: days, months, seasons, and years. Plants met the Sun the day after they were formed. They already had light. Isn’t that creative? It is also quiet, just the sound of growing plants, maybe breezes blowing through the branches of balsam trees, maybe the sound of lapping waves on the shoreline. It was all good. Evening and morning marked this fourth day also.

The fifth day birds and fish are made. The waters teem with life from the microscopic to the huge blue whale, from the creeping octopus to the happy dolphins. The waters are active, amazing places now. Parrots, bluebirds, robins, eagles, and every other kind of bird fill the forests, jungles, and sky with their color, flight and songs. It is a good day.

When the next day begins, animals come forth into their first existence. There were elephants, moles, horses, pigs, alligators, monkeys, dinosaurs, snakes, dogs, giraffes, and rhinoceros. Movement, noises, more color. Everything ate plants. It was good. The earth was full of life and beauty. The skies and seas were also. What a wonderful planet! If the creation would have stopped there, the earth would have been the most glorious zoological gardens, perfect in its setting in the universe. But the Creator was not done. There had to be someone to appreciate it all, to love the beauty, to enjoy the sounds, to study the expansive array of created things, and to look after the welfare of the various creatures and plants on the earth. Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So the Creator forms the first man out of the soil of the earth and breathes into his nostrils. The man comes to life, a special hand-made creation of God. For the first time since all began something is not good. It is not good for the man to be alone.

The Creator brought all the animals to the man to see what he would call each kind. What an intelligent creature! He had the gift of language right from the start, with quite a vocabulary!

By the way, people have been making up names for things ever since, naming both things found in creation and things that mankind has made. We cannot seem to help ourselves. Much of education is simply learning the names of things so that communication is clear.

After he had met and named all the creatures, it was clear that there was no one like him. Male and female of all the other creatures were together and thriving, but there was no one for him to be with.

The Creator caused a deep sleep to come on the man. While he was asleep, God took one of his ribs and formed a female human, beautiful and lovely. God brought her to the man. She was the crown of all creation, the last creature made. The man and the woman were made in the image of God. They had language, personality, great abilities to govern and understand. They could be creative with the created order making music and art, rearranging things into gardens. Their work was a delight. Everything they needed was already there. They lived in a wonderland of beauty and goodness. Only after the creation of man and woman was the creation complete and called very good.

Discussion Questions

1. Describe what you think a day in the life of Eve may have been like before the fall.

2. Have you ever given thought to the power it would take to create a single star? God made billions. How does it make you feel about God that He used His tremendous power to make a world like this one?

Chapter Two

VERY GOOD TIMES

It would be wise for us to just watch for a while and see this wonderful place in action. We will recognize it, I think… not because we have ever seen it, but because we dream of it. We humans have written and sung about, longed for and believed in a perfect existence. We cannot seem to help it. Even our negative speech about the world as it is now reveals that we know something has been lost. We firmly believe that life is not fair, that things should not be this way. Let’s look with our imaginations at what the earliest history of Earth was like after this point of completion.

The Bible says that on the seventh day God rested from all His creative work. So the first full day of man and woman’s existence, they were able to just be. They could revel in who they were, who He was, and all the perfection of the created things. There was so much to discover!

Can you imagine the total perfection of those days? The man and the woman understood each other perfectly. They both understood the Creator was magnificent and loving, personal and fun. I can just hear the laughter as they watched one of the first monkeys. I can feel their awe in watching a blue whale breach. The perfection of the birds’ songs filled them with joy.

There was no fear, no hardship. Everything was provided free of charge. Nothing was ruined or lost. The relationships were all perfectly healthy between the two people, and between each of them and Creator God. To be perfectly loved, perfectly understood, perfectly able to be yourself without judgment or criticism is a longing which still beats in every human heart. The man and the woman both felt safe, like they belonged, were accepted