Frank Viola, the best-selling Christian author, has written a book for women with Mary De Muth (one of the leading sex abuse advocates in the United States).
The Day I Met Jesus (2015) by Frank and Mary is a popular book among Christian women.
Here’s what some have said about the book.
“I read The Day I Met Jesus eagerly – loving the idea of reading about what we know and what could have happened in the lives of these women and Jesus. And then it happened. On the first page. The same sense of His presence enveloped me the way it did on the day I met Him myself. It was all there – the tender acceptance, the all-knowing gentle response to my sin, and the all encompassing love for them and for me. For all of us.
The Day I Met Jesus is a unique mix of fiction, historical fact, and brief, but deep Bible study. The combination drew me deeper into the Word and I can’t explain it, but I felt like I was there – not just with them. . .but with them and Him. Jesus. It felt personal because it is. Because Jesus is.
This book is a gift from God through the authors to readers. About the One who is, and was, and is to come. And about His astonishing grace and astounding love for the weary, the wounded, the seeking, and the found.”
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“This book is a life changing compilation of stories from 5 women in the Bible. However, the stories are not what you think. When we read the account in the Scriptures, we get a small snapshot of the story. But what led that women to that point in time when she met Jesus and her life was drastically, surprisingly, changed? In this book, Mary skillfully (and beautifully) crafted THAT story. Written with knowledge of the times then, and what we know now about women who end up in similar situations, the backstory is created in such a way that you will never read the stories the same again. Your compassion for these women will be activated and they will be come quite real to you. After each story is the actual Biblical account, the Scriptures that tell what we know is true, and then Frank Viola writes the rest of each chapter with the in-depth look of the passage so we get a better understanding of what the Scripture is telling us, and he brings out the practical applications for each of us. You will not regret adding this book to your library!”
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“Wanna meet Jesus? Wanna hear a familiar story told differently? Want a little more flesh on the bone? Wanna find a God ‘so blessedly alive you can touch Him?’
Whether you’ve yet to meet Him or you’ve had your faith in Him for a long time, this book will reach you and introduce you (even again) to the friend of sinners, the Savior of your soul.
‘Some stories cry their way to the streets,’ as it says in sentence one, story one. And these stories of five very real, remarkably relatable women from the dusty streets of the Bible certainly do. The woman caught in adultery. The Samaritan woman. The bleeder. The prostitute. The woman Jesus loved. Their stories, told and translated, are not just five women’s stories. They’re not. As Frank and Mary so masterfully and persuasively put forth, they are the stories of us all.
Meet these women. Mary has put flesh on their biblical-bones and clothes on their real and weary backs. And meet the man who met them where they were, in the dirt, in their daily chore, in their desperation, and changed everything for them. Meet Jesus.
Their lives were never the same. Neither will yours.
On the heels of each transformative encounter, the sacred text is examined, and Frank Viola walks it out with you in his thoughtful and relatable exposition. New to the faith or long in the tooth of it, you will learn something.
If Frank and Mary have done their job well, the Gospels will rise up and walk around your living room. They certainly did in mine.
Five stars and two thumbs way, way up.”
Viola has also written the following articles on women.