Bad Girls of the Bible: And What We Can Learn from Them

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1578563933 ISBN 13: 9781578563937

Publisher: WaterBrook Press, 2000

Women everywhere marvel at those “good girls” in Scripture–Sarah, Mary, Esther–but on most days, that’s not who they see when they look in the mirror. Most women (if they’re honest) see the selfishness of Sapphira or the deception of Delilah. They catch of glimpse of Jezebel’s take-charge pride or Eve’s disastrous disobedience. Like Bathsheba, Herodias, and the rest, today’s modern woman is surrounded by temptations, exhausted by the demands of daily living, and burdened by her own desires.

So what’s a good girl to do? Learn from their lives, says beloved humor writer Liz Curtis Higgs, and by God’s grace, choose a better path. In Bad Girls of the Bible, Higgs offers a unique and clear-sighted approach to understanding those “other women” in Scripture, combining a contemporary retelling of their stories with a solid, verse-by-verse study of their mistakes and what lessons women today can learn from them.

Whether they were “Bad to the Bone,” “Bad for a Season, but Not Forever” or only “Bad for a Moment,” these infamous sisters show women how not to handle the challenges of life. With her trademark humor and encouragement, Liz Curtis Higgs teaches us how to avoid their tragic mistakes and joyfully embrace grace.

Review:

Jezebel and Delilah have plenty to teach contemporary Christian women, according to Bad Girls of the Bible and What We Can Learn from Them. In this self-help book, Liz Curtis Higgs tells fictionalized, contemporary stories based on the lives of biblical characters including Eve, Potiphar's Wife, and the Woman at the Well. In verse-by-verse commentary, Higgs summarizes each life's lessons and provides a list of questions for personal consideration or group discussion. The overall message of each chapter is the same: "Good Girls and Bad Girls both need a Savior. The goodness of your present life can't open the doors of heaven for you. The badness of your past life can't keep you out either." In its effort to turn readers' minds heavenward, Bad Girls draws a distinction between fun and joy. Associated with "fleshly pleasures," fun "is temporary at best; it's risky, even dangerous, at worst." Joy, on the other hand, is found in God's "gift of grace." Perhaps the book's greatest weakness is its inability to see that "fun," in many lives, is a holy and necessary means of attaining "joy." --Michael Joseph Gross

About the Author:

An award-winning speaker, Liz Curtis Higgs has addressed audiences from more than 1400 platforms in all fifty
states, Germany, Ecuador, France, Canada, and Scotland, encouraging women to celebrate the joy of knowing Christ. She is the author of seventeen books, including two contemporary novels, Mixed Signals and Bookends, and her best-selling nonfiction titles, Bad Girls of the Bible and Really Bad Girls of the Bible.

Whether applying her storytelling talents to fiction or her unique style of “girlfriend theology” nonfiction, Liz touches the hearts of her readers with honest self-disclosure, real-life humor, and grace-filled encouragement.

Liz and her husband, Bill, live with their two children in Louisville, Kentucky.