What if God Himself came down to earth and looked like a man and walked like a man and had a personal relationship with select women?
What if those women he chose to touch, to live with, to eat with, and to have intimate discussions with included an adulteress, a prostitute, an ethnic outcast, a terminal patient, and a bold introvert?
What if it were YOU?
Frank Viola and Mary DeMuth explore the true stories of women touched by Christ in The Day I Met Jesus: The Revealing Diaries of Five Women from the Gospels. This biblical narrative paints vivid pictures of the real encounters with God in the flesh.
Each chapter begins with a diary of a woman met by Jesus in a remarkable way. Author Mary DeMuth shares the biblical character’s innermost thoughts and struggles before the encounter, giving a glimpse of the pain, regret, and fear that woman faced in her daily struggles. As the tale unfolds, one can’t help but identify with the universal struggles of abandonment, betrayal, loss, and desperation. But the day she meet Jesus changes everything for each woman, and the story of redemption becomes clear and joyous.
Anchored to the dusty earth, I knew this longed-for truth: I am loved. So very, utterly noticed. Picked. Wanted. Despite my story. Or maybe because of it? I am not sure. But one thing I am assured of is this: God saw fit to notice me, to make Himself known to me quietly at the place of my betrayal and shame… While evil had taken a lifetime to destroy me, this man took mere moments to re-story me.
Author Frank Viola then takes the chapter further with historical and theological background to the story, making the tale real and relevant. What results is life-changing spiritual truth, not just for the woman in the story, but for the reader, as well.
“He gave me a knowing look, as if He had walked the entire journey with me, felt every sting of pain, regret, fear, weakness, and loneliness.”
The Day I Met Jesus is thoughtfully constructed. By beginning each chapter with the narrative tale from the woman’s point of view, the authors draw the reader deeply into the tale. By the end of the story, one can’t help draw powerful parrallels with personal experiences and trials. Each tale subtly builds on the one before it, until by the last chapter, the tale of redemption is personal and powerful.
You, dear Christian, are not outside of God’s gracious reach. We serve a Lord who seaarches for us and makes divine appointments to pursue us. And in His merciful eyes, regardless of our past, we — His image bearers — are worth being pursued.
The Day I Met Jesus would make an excellent women’s Bible study. Each chapter includes several discussion questions to prime the conversation, but the tales are so pointed most groups will doubtless be eager to share similar testimonies of God’s grace.
“When life crowds you with its pressures and problems, there is always room to stretch your hand toward the Lord Jesus and touch Him.”
I read these tales as a personal devotional over one week. The stories startled me. I had never considered the stress, the pain, the persecution that drove each of these to seek Christ. By looking at them not as ancient characters in the text but as real, live women not unlike myself, I saw the miraculous grace that changed them. That changes me.
Because their story is mine, too. Nothing is the same since The Day I Met Jesus.
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If you order The Day I Met Jesus directly from Parable.com before March 17, you get these special gifts from Mary and Frank!
Get these 7 exclusive bonuses:
- An exclusive audio interview where Mary and Frank give a behind-the-scenes look at all the facets of the book. The interview covers where the idea of the book came from, why they wrote the book, what it was like collaborating, the hardest part about writing it, and much more.
- Mary’s book on spiritual warfare, Beautiful Battle, in Kindle & Nook.
- Frank’s book, Rethinking Spiritual Growth, in PDF, Kindle, and Nook.
- A never-before-released audio conference message entitled “A Woman Inside of a Man.”
- Mary’s book What To Do After People Poop on You in PDF [one of my favorite resources for getting over it all].
- A never-before-released audio conference message entitled “He’s Not Ashamed to Call Them Brothers and Sisters.“
- A 15% discount off The Day I Met Jesus Master Course.
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