Women Who Followed Jesus: Mary Magdalene,Joanna,Susanna and many others)

As narrated by Mary Magdalene:




Our eyes have known no rest since the night he was taken from us. Sombre,sick and drained we've been,unable to taste good food,staring into the day wondering if he'd return on the third day as he said.


Reminiscing on his life and times, I beg to remember how we served tables,supplied bread for the journey, sewed quilt,polished sandals and hemmed robes for long journeys we embarked on with the Master. ‎​​We volunteered to serve him sacrificing family time and giving our all for the master's use.


I remember how in one word, he cast out evil spirits from us delivering us from all our troubles. He taught us to pray in His will,revealing deep truths about His kingdom. ‎​​We enjoyed reclining at His feet, going on long road crusades,‎​​meeting in homes to share fellowship, breaking bread, and all what not.
He taught us love in a manner we never knew-including loving our enemies-;he simplified the gospel and "unclogged" our hearts of old traditions and legalism. It's with him we learned that we are no longer captive but FREE indeed.


I ​​​am Mary Magdalene, the one whom he cast out seven demons from and my friends Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's business manager, Susanna and many others decided to minister to him from our own resources ensuring he had a daily supply of food,etc.


I chuckle as I share one of out of the many life changing incidents which make ‎​​me love and miss Him more. One day,our friend and master honoured an invitation of a Pharisee living with leprosy. While eating,a certain immoral and "bad-reputed" woman came in and walked straight to the master. Many indignant people who knew her lifestyle murmured,snarled at her and looked down at her in utter disgust. But this rather thick skinned woman,obviously unperturbed by the sneers and disgruntled looks, fell at the master's feet while we looked on.


Silence filled the room as she began caressing,kissing and pouring her tears on his feet. In her right hand was a beautiful perfume and with her left hand, she let down her hair breaking the jar containing a sweet smelling perfume on his feet. She extravagantly poured it upon his feet intermittently caressing,tenderly kissing,massaging and wiping his feet with her hair. 


She wiped the dust from his feet, unashamed of carrying the master's dust upon her most treasured thing; she soothed and soiled his feet at every moment with her tears longing for his approval over man's. She may have presumed that being around Jesus at such a time could guarantee her salvation hence taking undue advantage,lavishing on him her best ‎​gift of love. She preferred to stay at His feet until she won a pat from him.


My heart pumped afraid the master might hush her away for soiling his heel with her tears and greasing his body with some expensive"worldly"perfume and permanently grabbing his legs like she was up to some seductive moves. Rather,the Master watched her intently uttering not a word,but the over-ambitious holier-than-thou Pharisee called him a self acclaimed prophet who entertains devious sinners like this unrepentant immoral, social outcast, notorious, brash,crude(need I reel out more adjectives)...woman. I giggled at his use of adjectives,fixing my gaze upon her every move. I could not judge her since a fortnight ago,our master healed ‎​​me of several diseases no physician could cure.


Afterwards,the master told a story to the "sanctimonious" Pharisee called Simon. He spoke on a certain lender who had two debtors owing five hundred and fifty denarii respectively but had no means to pay. He waived the debt and let them go then he asked him;


"Now which of them will love him more? Simon answered, The one, for whom he forgave and cancelled more. And the master said to him, You have decided correctly."


Then turning to the woman, He said to him, Do you see this woman? When I came into your house, you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave Me no kiss, but she from the moment I came in has not ceased to kiss My feet tenderly. You did not anoint My head with cheap, ordinary oil, but she has anointed My feet with costly, rare perfume. This day, her sins, many as they are, are forgiven her,because she has loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little. And He said to her, Your sins are forgiven young lady. Your faith has saved you; go in peace and be free from all the distress that are experienced as a result of sin."


He forgave her while others grumbled at his authority to forgive sins. He forgave with no ceremonial rites or unnecessary paraphernalia. One word granted the once notorious sinner a place with the Master. He became her Master and friend by one act of genuine undiluted show of brokenness and love for a Master she never knew but only heard of.


Still caught up in those thoughts, I started my trip to the tomb with spices we (Salome, Mary the mother of James and others)had prepared for his body. He-the Master- had promised that on the third day being today,he'd rise again and I curiously want to be the first to touch him.


At wee hours of the ‎morning, dark clouds yet to unveil the dawn, I approached the tomb and found the stone rolled away from the door. Startled I was wondering who would roll off such a big stone knowing that none of the disciples had come here - apparently devastated by his sudden death and perhaps remorseful by their betrayal,snuggled up in one room unable to look anyone(especially we the women who stood by till we got to the foot of Golgotha where he was crucified) in the face. With my heart racing like an oversped car, I tip toed into the tomb and peered in seeing " no dead body",I dashed back to alert the disciples.


It was a mixed feeling of despair and fear while narrating to them how the Master's body had been stolen. Peter and John joined ‎​​me to the tomb again to confirm my story. ‎​​We found his linen but the burial napkin used to wrap his head was also missing. At that point John believed the scripture which said; "He must rise again".Then they left ‎​​me there sobbing and waiting to find my personal friend, Lord and master.


As I looked into the tomb again,I saw two angels sitting at the head and foot of his burial place. And they said to ‎​​me,"Woman, why are you sobbing? I replied choked with tears, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him."
As I turned away from them,I was greeted by a man supposing he was the gardener, he asked the same question as the two angels wondering who I was looking for. But this time I confronted him saying; "Sir, if you carried Him away from here, tell me where you have put Him and I will take Him away."


I did not recognise who stood before ‎​​me, though this "gardener" looked radiant and translated from the man I knew and lived with. Then he called my name, Mary! Recognising his voice, I screamed with joy; "Rabboni"(meaning Master or Teacher) and ran to embrace him. But he said;"Do not cling to Me for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go to your brethren and tell them, I am ascending to My Father and YOUR FATHER, and to My God and YOUR GOD."


With endless ever increasing joy,I skipped like a deer eager to break the news to the disciples that I had seen the Lord and how he said these things to ‎​​me.


Jesus revealed himself first to a once sin-ridden and demonic woman like me, gave ‎​​me the WORD and the greatest news of all time for all to share for many generations to come. He ascended and gave us all a place with Him- as co-heirs with the Father. He ascended,giving us authority over all things; he ascended handing us the higher life and giving us leeway to the Father. He ascended by the power of His name.
Hallelujah!


(References: Luke 7,8 and John 20)
(c) Enobong

You Will Never Be Thirsty Again...

She was different from Rahab. She was even different from the adulterous woman in that she had had five husbands and she was done having husbands. All she had was a lover, I mean you know how sometimes a husband can be a drag, responsibility and all that. But you know if all you had was a lover, it would be pleasure all the way and no commitments, you could terminate the relationship (If you could call it that) anytime you wanted. But obviously Jesus was not in agreement, He wasn't a judge either, He never even so much as asked the woman to get rid of the lover and become religious, nope, He simply gave her 'Living water' His word.

Jesus was on a journey this day and he stopped by a well and obviously God had spoken to him this time to speak to a woman he shouldn't be speaking to. You know Jesus was Jew right! He should have been observing Jewish tradition, following the status quo but there, he was no rule keeper, love was his guide! Okay he stopped to speak to this woman and instead of preaching at her, he's asking for a drink of water (Verse 4 says 'And he must needs go through Samaria') what does that mean? (NIV says 'Now he had to go through Samaria') implying that there were other routes but apparently God was guiding Him. The Samaritan woman, thinking Jesus did not understand what should be done informed him that 'we don't mix like oil and water...' I mean your people and mine don't have anything to do with one another, society does not allow this.

Jesus ignores her and goes to the crux of the matter, he tells her that if she knew who was asking her for water, she would ask him and he would give her 'living water'

Hold up a minute! Who on earth asks you for something and while you are making excuses on why you can't receive it, he interrupts you and practically begs you to ask him for living water that he would have given you... (God is a good God, imagine a man going about looking for how to do good, he's saying, ask me and I will give it to you, just in case you are scared of asking for what I want to give you. "If you know who is speaking with you now, you would ask me and I would have given you"). I am so glad that God is good!

Notice he talks in the past tense and this woman is so divinely positioned that Jesus would meet her at the well and give her what the whole world needs.

What amazes me so much is that God would direct Jesus' journey so that he meets with a woman by a well to give her living water?

(I declare that I am divinely positioned to receive God's goodness for me and all my family and for my friends too)

This woman is stuck on the physical because honestly, i probably would have thought that way too. I would be thinking, i have the pitcher, you are just a tired man (verse 1-4 says somewhere that Jesus was tired. Tired and still wanting to do the Masters Will) with no pitcher to fetch me water so where do you think you are going to get water from? With what will you get the water? 

Jesus who knew what he was talking about then promises her that his water is different from the water everyone else brings that the water he gives '...will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life' (John 4:14NIV). The woman takes a leap of faith and then says give me this water so I don't have to keep coming here to draw water.

What Jesus should have done now is bring out his magic pitcher or whatever it was he was going to use to fetch water (assuming we were dealing with the physical) Right? Wrong!

Jesus now goes on and asks her to go and call her husband and come back. 

I would probably have been angry cause you have been enticing me with this special thing that would quench my thirst forever and now that i want it, you are asking for my husband but she doesn't, she tell him instead she said that she has no husband and it is true but she probably wanted to say she was  unmarried, you know all the half truths we tell all the time.

Jesus then goes on and tells her pointblank that she has had 5 husbands and that the current beau is a lover. She simply acknowledges that Jesus very well might be a prophet. She then tells him the squabbles the Jews have with the Samaritans about the location of worship. Jesus then tells her that soon we would be worshiping in spirit and in truth seeing that God is a spirit. The woman then tells Jesus that she has heard about 'a messiah' and that when he comes he would explain everything to us.

Jesus then said simply '...I who speak to you am He' (John 4:26) 

(Is it not amazing that he didn't say, woman, you have had five husbands and a lover and i have come to jugde you and soon hailstones will be falling on your head, he simply says he is the messiah and tells her how we ought to worship God and that is the solution apparently because the next thing we know, she is an evangelist, telling everyone in her town about this Jesus)

His disciples return immediately and then the woman does a strange thing, she leaves her water jar and goes into the town telling people that they should come see a man who told her everything she ever did that could this be the Christ?

It is funny that a whole town would flock out on one woman's word to come and see Jesus. The bible records that many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the woman's story. All he told her was 'i am he...' and i bet she did believe, you don't go calling people on hearsay, she believed but left it open for the others to believe.

I wonder why she would believe and the pharisees would not, why would a Samaritan town believe because honestly, i know Jesus gave them no physical water to drink, what he did give them was his words.

It then records that when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them and he stayed two days, not for food or because he was good looking but because of his words.

Is the word of God a quencher of the thirst inside you. Scriptures say 'out of our bellies shall flow rivers of living water...'

I sometimes wonder, where does the river of living water flow through? Our anus, or our mouths (I mean we have only that many exits from our body). 

I am glad to announce to you that it is our mouth, whether it is tongue (speaking in tongues) or just speaking, our mouth ought to be blessing and we (i) really ought to abstain from back biting, gossiping or just running people down. It is so not cool!

Jesus words caused a woman to go to a town telling about him and the people begged him to stay with them because of his words again. What do people remember about you, about your words, not when you are on a stage or in the presence of admirers but from the people closest to you? 

God has given us eternal life in his son, we have the ability to worship him in spirit and in truth, we have the comforter living in us 24/7. I put it to you that we are a breathing, walking, doing good Jesus on this earth, we give out eternal life, eternal verities just by our speech that is why our speech ought to be disciplined and our thoughts too...

The Samaritan woman is my inspiration for the week, she believed a simple 'i am he', i want to believe Jesus every moment and to live with this relationship we have really, knowing that he is not just a Jesus in some book but a person who is wholly concerned about me and the way i live my life and just loves me crazily. He justs wants to do good!

Jesus is my role model, i want to talk like he talks and act like he acts, everyday because i am living and producing the same living water he was producing.

I never want a farce, a fake life, a life that is not genuine, i won't stand for it! I am glad for living water that is in me! I give out life, i am a life-giving spirit

Jesus is just awesome!


(c) Tisha Smith

WHO TOUCHED ME?

^"24 So Jesus went with him, and a great multitude followed Him and thronged Him. ²⁵ Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, ²⁶ and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse.²⁷ when she heard about Jesus; she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. ²⁸For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.” ²⁹ immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. ³⁰ And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes?” ³¹ But His disciples said to Him, “You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’” ³² And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. ³³ but the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. ³⁴ And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.” Mark 5:24-34
 

Every woman can relate with this woman’s story but to what extent? It’s one thing for her to bleed for the usual five to seven days; it’s another thing entirely to bleed for seven whole years, equivalent of 4384 days. How fast could the red blood cells multiply to replace the lost ones? How much white blood cells would be left in the body to defend it from disease? How strong could her immunity have been after such loss of blood? How physically strong could she have been? How much money could she have left if she had being treated for the same illness over and over again, getting second opinions, perhaps being used as a guinea pig for the latest drug, being poked and prodded in various delicate places by physicians who were puzzled by her ailment yet unwilling to admit it.

The bible says this woman suffered many things in the hands of physicians. They promised her healing falsely yet continued to milk her dry. What could her life have been like?

Lev 15:19-31, paints a good picture of menstruating women and how they were seen and to be treated.

According to the Leviticus law, women were considered unclean during menstruation and were to remain separated from everyone. Everyone had to stay away from such women during this period and she would wait in isolation until the cessation of menstruation after which she would bring two turtles or two young pigeons to the priest who would offer both a sin offering and a burnt offering. Then she would be welcomed back to the camp, back to civilization, so to speak.  

Can you imagine how this erodes the discreetness we modern women so craves at such a time. Each time a woman goes into the separation camp, everyone goes ‘Oh oh, she’s got a bloody issue’, lol.

Well this law was still very much in effect during Jesus’ time and so this woman must have lived in isolation twelve long years. That must have been painful. She was isolated from everyone she loved and knew. She was denied physical touch or even intimacy. She couldn’t interact in anyway, share a joke or two, laugh and eat with people. Her body was riddled with this debilitating disease and basically she was as good as dead. In fact, she smelt like death as she probably never had the strength to wash her ‘separation clothes’, so she probably just laid in it day and night, fresh and crusted blood all mixed together. No luxury of ‘Always’ I’m afraid. J.

Then her finances dwindled fast. One thing is apparent, either she was a woman of means or she had family with some wealth because it seems she’d seen the best physicians over and over again. Her finances either dwindled or the family could no longer support her. They decided to leave her for dead after all she’d not been seen anywhere for twelve years anyway. But she never gave up. She never lost hope of being one day free from her infirmity. Even after twelve years she still had hope.

Now imagine this scenario; she sat at her window to listen to people talking. That was the only way she was informed of current events, in fact it was the only time she felt connected with people. And these people talked about a man called Jesus. They said He healed the sick, raised the dead and performed the most awesome miracle and He was passing by the road by her house that day. The moment the testimony of Jesus’ deeds entered her ears, like the parable of the sower, the testimony lands on very fertile soil, the soil in the heart of a very desperate woman. This Jesus she had to see. In the past she’d never been able to make it beyond the door, being weak and all but strength from nowhere rose in her. She quickly changed into the only clean clothes she had left to hide her condition and blend in with everyone else.

Her heart pounded. She knew she had to make a move but the law forbade women from touching a rabbi/priest, least of all an unclean one. If the men knew she was unclean perhaps she would be stoned to death. But then she was dying anyway. She knew in the depths of her heart that if she could just touch him, just that one touch would make all the difference. Buoyed by her strengthening faith, she leaped with all her strength into the crowd and tried to gain up but Jesus walked too quickly and only his garment flowed behind Him. She strained as hard as she could as she stretched and caught hold of his helm of his garment.

Boom! A powerful force zipped through her and in that moment, the bible says ‘the fountain of her blood was dried up’. She knew in that instant that life had come back and she was made whole.

Interestingly, many people touched Jesus that day; in fact many rubbed shoulders with Him, probably stepped on His toes but only this woman made a real, concrete connection. She was the only one who did not see Jesus’ presence as mundane; she saw beyond a mere man, she saw with the eyes of faith. Her act of faith was so phenomenal she drew heaven’s attention and stopped Jesus in His tracks. This woman was a show-stopper through her courage, tenacity and persistent faith. Jesus was in a hurry to go and heal Jairus’ daughter but the woman with the issue of blood stopped Him for a moment and claimed her deliverance.

And when Jesus asked the question: “WHO TOUCHED ME?” He knew virtue had been released from Him. He wasn’t enquiring to punish the woman, He wanted to know and commend the person who took that step of faith. He respected her actions and told her “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.” 

And here’s one admirable thing she did. When Jesus wanted to know who touched him, she owned up to her deeds even though she was trembling. She didn’t run away or try to pretend, she come forward and volunteered the information and that honesty sealed the deal. Halleluyah!

(c)Histiara

Through Mary's Lenses

(First of all, I would like to thank  Koinonia and  'Faith Dames' for inviting me and accepting me into your fold of Dames with Faith. I am truly honoured and feel so blessed. 'Through Mary's Lenses' is not new. I just 'stole' it from my book 'The Diary of a Desperate Naija Woman in the Year 20-Ten'  because I just could not wait to be  part of this group! I hope you like it. I hope it blesses you. And most of all, I hope it, in any little way possible, makes the fires of your faith flare more ferociously!

Usually, all my thoughts are on Baby Jesus at Christmas. How bout you? Same, abi? There are always, and rightly so, calls from all corners for us to remember the real reason for the season and so we do. We do our best to make sure that as we go through all the eating, drinking and jisting, we do not forget to give thanks for the real gift that keeps on giving. The gift from God to a world in dire need of a way out from eternal destruction - Jesus Christ.

This year has been no different. Thanks to reading 'The Shack', this Christmas, I am very aware of the awesome love God has for me more than ever. I am so grateful to God for Jesus Christ but today is a little different. Thanks to my Pastor, I was called on to think about his mother, Mary. At least, right now, today,  Jesus Christ is really just a tiny baby in a manger so I think it will be OK to spend some time thinking about his Mama, abi?

We really do not think about this woman often enough. Not sure why cos THAT was no mean feat agreeing to be 'conceived of the Holy Spirit' especially in the times she lived in. Especially when there was a very likely chance Joseph would not believe her incredible story. And who would blame him? Never before had a woman, a virgin, come forward to claim that she was pregnant. Wahala number 1. We are talking, fornication here and offense punishable by death. A very painful, slow death by stoning. Then on top of that she goes on to claim that the one 'who dunnit' is not a mere man but a 'spirit'! Wahala number 2! Come on! She has surely gone mad, they would say. Not only had she been messing around, she now had the audacity to be claiming that God was responsible! Just try to imagine the faces of her people as she told them this story! And I remember reading somewhere that Mary was only about 14/15 years at the time!

So for just the time it will take you to read this rest of this, please wear  the 'glasses' Mary must have been looking at her life through in this season of her life after she had that one of a kind meeting with Angel Gabriel. What do you think she was feeling? Fear? What would Joseph say? What would her parents and her soon to be in laws think of her? How would the people look at her now? What if ALL this was the figment of some serious fever she MUST be suffering from? Who had ever heard of a virgin getting pregnant? Oh my gosh, her reputation will  be in shreds now! Her engagement will surely be annulled and on top of that surely, they will stone her! I am going to die! And on and one her mind must have been reeling.........but what did she do with all these thoughts? How would she cope? What did she say? Let's see, follow me to Luke 1: 38 and we shall see what this young woman  said:

Mary responded, 'I am the Lord's servant, and I am willing to accept whatever he wants. May everything you have said come true.'

Wow! She was basically saying - Let them reject me if that's part of your plan, let them think I have gone mad, let Joseph turn his back on me if that's what it means, in fact, yes! let them stone me if that is what God wants. What a demonstration of absolute TRUST in her God. And I know that deep in her heart, she somehow knew that God loved her too much and that it would ALL work out for good. She may not have had one single clue HOW but she knew HE would come through. Mary trusted God with her very life.

In 2011, by the special grace of God, I am going to be like Mary, mother of Jesus Christ. 

I will trust God with my very life.

How about you dear one? How about you?

(c) DesperateNaijaWoman

I Am The City Prostitute: Rahab

I am the city prostitute.

I am bold and beautiful. I double up as a pimp and a whore who works hard to make a living. No doubt,I sell my body to make raw cash and that makes ‎​​me cool.

My name makes ‎​​me proud because everyone including the ‎​king know my identity.

I am always found in the streets and market place buying and selling. Two days ago,I was booed in the market square,calling me brash,long legged and sly at heart.

One day, two strange men visited the land and actually walked by my house. I readily flung my door open to them thinking they needed my usual service. Yes, they needed my help but this time not a "one night stand" nor my myriad of whores. They wouldn't even look at ‎​​me because they had a mission to accomplish(I wonder how they knew my "occupation" to stop by my crib). As soon as I let them in, I saw one young boy peeping through my window but I hushed him away.

Hours later the ‎​king sent a word to ‎​​me to bring the men I have "in my bed"-everyone assumes that I seductively solicit for every man's attention. In strict keeping with Eastern manners, no man is permitted to enter a woman's house without her permission. I was at high risk but in my usual way,I played a fast one on the ‎​king's men and they left in search of the spies.

I covered  the two spies with piles of flax which I coincidentally stored up on my roof. It was the time of the barley harvest, and flax and barley ripen at the same time in the Jordan valley, so that the bundles of flax stalks were left to dry.

On this particular night, I refused to go on my rounds because I feared my house could be ransacked and I wanted to preserve the lives of these spies. I locked my doors and I ran up the roof to have a word with them. I reeled out my fears to them acknowledging their God as mightily behind them. I told them the stories we've heard of their God and how my people are afraid and unable to conquer them even with all our troops. I suddenly lay flat pleading with them to spare ‎​​me and my family for risking my life for them. I said;

"Now swear to ‎​​me by the Lord that ‎​you will be kind to ‎​​me and my family since I have helped ‎​‎​you."

I could feel hot tears streaming down my well made-up face. The "Kohl" in my eyes smeared making my tears dark but I didn't mind since my life mattered the most at this time.

I added;" Give ‎​​me some guarantee that when our city is conquered, ‎​you will let ‎​​me live, along with  all my family members". Then I wiped my tears with my Pashmina while they pacified ‎​​me with their words; "‎​​We offer our own lives as a guarantee for your safety. If ‎​you don't betray us, ‎​​we will keep our promise when the Lord gives us the land"

For the first time in my entire life, I slept in tranquillity like a new born baby,also amazed that I could stay through the night with two handsome and well built men without asking for sex. By ‎morning,I gave them water to wash up,while I fixed them a meal of oat and bread. I dug out a scarlet robe I usually use to let down my clients at night when the city gates are locked- since I live on the city wall,it makes it easy to escape to the hills.

 I tied the rope on my window sill letting it down for them. While they prepared to leave, I instructed them on the regular route my clients ply.

"Escape to the hill country" I said and hide there for three days till the men who are searching for ‎​you return. They reiterated  those words they told ‎​​me last night and added very weighty but symbolic words; "‎​​We can guarantee ‎​your safety if ‎​you leave this scarlet(the same rope I used to commit atrocity) hanging from the window." They asked that my entire household remain inside my house until they claim the city. I swore not to betray them but abide by this oath.

Wow! I pondered. That means I'd run out of business and loose my clients, and my entire family would have to stay indoors for an uncertain number of days because if any of us goes out to the streets,we would die like everyone.

However, I gathered my family into my house and firmly locked my doors. ‎​​My family members brought some of their important belongings into my spare room,we bought enough food for the period ‎​​We would stay indoors seizing this opportunity to have our family reunion after such a long time. I shared my experience with the spies convincing them of the God I met through them.

This time I knew my occupation as a city prostitute had come to a grinding halt never to be visited again. I also knew this was a moment to find hope in the only Supreme God who chose to send spies to a prostitute like ‎​​‎​​me. I perceived my salvation was closer than I ever imagined.  My thought also ran wild wondering why a perfect God would think so highly of a rotten girl like ‎​​me who has lured,seduced and cajoled hundreds of men to their death place?

Some days after,news came to us that the city gates were tightly shut because my kindred were afraid of God's own people and everyone including the King dwelt in utter fear. For six days,we heard heavy stumping of foot soldiers and the sound of several horns.



On the seventh day, ‎​​we were awakened by the foot soldiers. This time, the rhythm changed, the atmosphere was dark and tense and the clouds grew red. Then,I was assured the time had come. ‎​​We heard them march round our city seven times, then a long,loud sound blazed into the air and everywhere shook like the rumbling of thunder and sparks of lightening. Suddenly, we heard a mighty shout which was like the noise of many waters and a mighty earthquake rushed through our city crushing shops,empires,palaces, monuments and strongholds-everything in our once adorable city collapsed stone upon stone,houses upon houses but our house stood like a firm foundation!

Though the noise rattled ‎​​me and made everyone in my house curl up in a corner,we were safe.

Just then, a knock on our door shook us to our feet. Scared stiff to open the door, I opted to be their "sacrificial lamb". I opened the door and there were these two spies grinning at ‎​​me sheepishly. I flung my hands around them broken to tears. They pacified me and led ‎​​‎​​me to sit down while they greeted my family. I managed to do a shabby introduction amidst tears. Then they announced that they came to rescue us to their land. ‎​​

We followed them to meet the great warrior,Joshua whom I had heard of from my childhood days. He expressed his sincere gratitude for  saving his men with my "fidelity"-wow the first good comment made about ‎​​me all my life? He didn't call ‎​​me a harlot or an infidel, but a beautiful not forsaken, delightful woman furnished with a brand new life? He saw something no one ever did? Oh what love?

 He further rewarded my family and ‎​​me with a pleasant abode among his people.

The Supreme God of Israel blessed ‎​​me with a new life, saving ‎​​me from a sordid past;preserving and rescuing my family from death. I ran into him and found grace and mercy. He set my feet upon a solid rock to stay and built ‎​​me upon His foundation forever. He enlarged ‎​​me and broadened my coast from the strange lands of Jericho to the plush country of Israel.

I belong to a new race by grace.

I am Rahab, a wife to a prince of Judah, Salmon and our son is called Boaz(Ruth 4:21; 1 Chr. 2:11; Matt. 1:5).


(c) Enobong