Slightly Bad Girls of the Bible: Flawed Women Loved by a Flawless God - eBook

Liz Curtis Higgs is the author of 26 books, with more than 3 million copies in print, including her best-selling nonfiction series, Bad Girls of the Bible, Really Bad Girls of the Bible, and Unveiling Mary Magdalene, and her Christy Award—winning historical novel, Whence Came a Prince. A columnist for Today’s Christian Woman and an accomplished speaker, Liz makes her home in Louisville, Kentucky, with her husband, Bill.

Liz Curtis Higgs has been telling tales since she attempted her first novel--handwritten in a marble notebook--at the tender age of ten. Successful careers in broadcasting, public speaking, nonfiction writing, and children's books honed Liz's storytelling talents, bringing her back to her first love--writing fiction--at the turn of the 21st century.

A gifted speaker, Liz Curtis Higgs has presented more than 1,500 inspirational programs for audiences in all 50 United States as well as Germany, England, Canada, Ecuador, France, and Scotland. In 1995, Liz received the highest award in professional speaking, the "Council of Peers Award for Excellence," becoming one of only forty women in the world named to the CPAE-Speaker Hall of Fame by the National Speakers Association.

Feature articles about Liz have appeared in more than 250 major newspapers and magazines across the country, and she has been interviewed on more than 600 radio and television stations, including guest appearances on PBS, A&E, MSNBC, NPR, CBC Canada, BBC Radio Scotland, Focus on the Family, and Janet Parshall's America. Liz is the author of 22 books, with 3 million copies in print.

Sarah mistreated her maidservant. Hagar despised her mistress. Rebekah manipulated her son. Leah claimed her sister’s husband. And Rachel envied her fertile sister. Wait a minute. Aren’t they the Good Girls of the Bible?

You bet. They’re also decidedly human. Like the famous men in their lives–Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob–these five women from Genesis often stubbed their toes along the rocky path of righteousness. They were far from evil, but hardly perfect; mostly good, yet slightly bad. In other words, these ancient sisters look a lot like us.

More than one million readers around the world have taken a walk on the wild side with best-selling author Liz Curtis Higgs, as she brings to vivid life the ancient stories of two dozen Bad Girls of the Bible, from Eve to Mary Magdalene. Her unique brand of "girlfriend theology" is upbeat and encouraging, laced with humor and heartfelt self-disclosure, yet built on a foundation of solid research, including 14 translations of the Scriptures and more than 100 resource books and commentaries.

In Slightly Bad Girls of the Bible–designed both for individual reading and for group use–Liz once again combines contemporary fiction and verse-by-verse commentary in her novel approach to Bible study, offering eye-opening lessons for women who long to know, "Does God love me, flaws and all? Can God use me, ‘as is’?"

Higgs revisits the well of biblical women for this continuation of her hugely successful Bad Girls of the Bible series. Whereas Bad Girls of the Bible and Really Bad Girls of the Bible tackled the Jezebels and Salomes, often demonstrating that these women were not as nefarious as later traditions would suggest, this one takes a different tack, looking at five “good girls” of the Bible and finding them seriously flawed. Focusing on Genesis, Higgs looks at Sarah (a control freak), Hagar (who was filled with bitterness), Rebekah (a conniving schemer who played favorites with her sons), Leah (another schemer) and Rachel (who was consumed by jealousy). One theme that emerges clearly is how fertility, or the lack of it, dominated these women’s lives in a patriarchal culture. As always, Higgs’s tone is chatty and girlfriendish, addressing the reader in the second person as she emphasizes the lesson—and the humor—in each woman’s tale. And as always, this one capably blends fictional vignettes of contemporary “bad girls” with in-depth exegesis of their biblical counterparts’ stories. Higgs also reveals her own foibles as she weaves personal anecdotes into each chapter, underscoring the book’s overall theme: even faithful women can sometimes be hurtful and selfish. (Sept. 16) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

As a woman who can confess she is quite a bit less than perfect, I found Liz Curtis Higgs’ Slightly Bad Girls of the Bible to be an uplifting, encouraging book. In an honest, humorous, yet sensitive approach, Higgs presents the lives of Sarah, Hagar, Rebekah, Leah, and Rachel, pointing out each woman’s flaws and virtues, and deftly applying them to the lives of women today.

Higgs begins each chapter by briefly retelling each woman’s story as it might happen in today’s culture, making it easy to identify with her not just as a historical figure, but as a woman. For example, Sarah, who gave her slave to her husband as a wife in hopes that Hagar would conceive the child promised to Abraham, becomes Sandi, a modern day woman who seeks a surrogate mother to bear the child for which she longs. Then Higgs explores the different facets of each woman’s character through the lens of well-examined biblical history, drawing from different commentators and translations, winding up with an examination of the lessons that can be learned from each slightly bad girl.

This book is the fourth installment in Higgs’ study series about biblical women. In keeping with the tradition of the series, she connects with her readers on the level of a sister who can speak from personal experience. Her fresh, unique approach to familiar characters and stories is both intriguing and instructional.

Slightly Bad Girls of the Bible spoke volumes to me as a woman. What about those character quirks and flaws I fight continually against? What about the one-time choices with which consequences I still have to live? Through modern-day vignettes and in-depth character studies on the lives of these imperfect women, who were at the foundational core of God’s chosen civilization, Higgs reassures women like me that God willingly and vitally uses flawed but faithful women to accomplish his purposes. – Lyndi Markus, Christian Book Previews.com

"I love Liz’s work! She entertains while teaching and leaves me with points to ponder long after. Her insights are fresh and exciting and will draw readers back into the Word."
—Francine Rivers, best-selling author of Redeeming Love