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“Do Women Need Jesus?” is the question answered in this episode of Truth of the Spirit with host Patti Brunner. The focus of the world tells women they need to be pretty or rich or dressy or healthy or active or smart. But we say: You need Jesus; Jesus is enough for you. The women in the New Testament will tell us what that means. They help you to know who you are in Christ Jesus. You have a choice to live as a Bride of Christ or as a ‘people pleaser’. . Not all of the women of the New Testament were pretty, smart or healthy—yet each one is shown to become the daughter of Christ as they turned their face toward Jesus. Those who turned away from him found death. We also discuss the decision maker: does this affect eternity? And how you can you grow in your relationship with Jesus?
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Do women need Jesus today?
The world draws focus to other things. The focus of the world tells women they need to be pretty or rich or dressy or healthy or active or smart. It tells us and shows us that we need to be ‘pretty’ that we need to be ‘rich’. Being pretty and rich is nice but it is not a necessity of life. There are plenty of people in the world who are neither.
Guess what! Fashion is not a basic need.
You are listening to Truth of the Spirit. I’m Patti Brunner. Today we will answer the question: Do Women Need Jesus?
The world tells us that women need to be healthy and active, to live long lives. If you need Jesus you can live forever!
I have known families who skip Sunday mass to allow their daughters to participate in a sports activity.
These parents are not preparing their healthy daughters to live forever. Eternity is forever. Our whole life is [snap] less than that when compared to eternity. How can sports activity be more beneficial than Sunday mass if we look at eternity?
What else does the ‘world’ tell women that they ‘need’? The world tells us we need to be smart but in their marketing for education the world fails to recognize that wisdom comes from the Lord.
Let’s look at Psalm 119 verses 98-100. “Your commandment makes me wiser than my foes, as it is forever with me. I have more insight than all my teachers, because I ponder your testimonies. I have more understanding than my elders, because I keep your precepts.”
The key exam for those who need Jesus is the examination of conscience.
I am an educated woman, but, trust me, it is my spiritual formation that affects eternity, not my accounting degree. Good Christian formation is important for every woman, no matter the age.
When you look in the mirror, do you desire to be perfect? In the Gospel Jesus says, So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect [Mt.5:48]
In Matthew chapter 19 verse21, Jesus also said, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me”
Still want to be perfect?
In Romans chapter 12:2 Paul offers us another way. Paul tells us “Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God—what is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect.”
You see, my sisters, even if you are pretty and rich and dressy and healthy and active and smart, these things are not enough.
When you need Jesus and you don’t have Jesus all sorts of other things try to fill in the emptiness! And let me tell you, filling the emptiness is the basis for the world’s advertising campaign.
St. Augustine wrote: “Our hearts are restless, O Lord, until they rest in you.
We all have temporal basic needs of food, shelter & clothing. But there is a need more basic than these. It is the need for Jesus. You need Jesus. Jesus is enough for you. Jesus brings joy and completeness.
Let’s look at the New Testament and some of the women who needed Jesus. Not all of these women were pretty or smart or healthy—yet each one is shown to have become Christ’s daughter as they turned their face toward Him.
Some of the women had problems. Major problems!
Mary Magdalene she had behavior issues. Can you imagine the mood disorders and anxiety that 7 demons could cause? Afflicted in body and mind she was detestable; yet Jesus drew near to her as she sought to be near to him. After she was set free from the demons she focused her whole life around Jesus; so focused that she was the first one to see him after the resurrection.
Are you focused on Jesus?
Jesus also connected with the Woman with the Hemorrhage. This woman had no riches because she spent everything she had on remedies that had no effect. Her health was bad. She was an outcast in society because her period lasted for days and weeks and years-12 years– like many people today she spent all her money searching for wholeness but then Jesus entered her life. She knew something that the rich and the smart didn’t figure out.
She knew she needed Jesus. Her need and his grace gave her boldness: Boldness to barely reach out and touch his cloak. That was enough. Jesus stopped his journey with a crowd to turn and encounter this one sister who was old – and not pretty. And that was enough for her. It’s all she needed.
Have you ever reached out to touch Jesus?
Think about the sisters Mary and Martha – It’s likely they were not pretty. Couldn’t get a man. Lived with their brother. …Yet Jesus chose to stay at their house. Mary wasn’t what you would call active.
Martha basically called her lazy. But Mary knew she needed Jesus.
Jesus helps all of us to realize that keeping busy–even with what seems worthwhile—is not always the right choice. Staying focused on Jesus is what we need. If He calls you to be busy—then be busy; if He calls you into the quiet with Him then be still and listen.
Do you take time to be still and listen to Jesus?
Jesus was in their midst. He is in our midst, too—at this very moment, he is here, calling you to be still and listen.
Lydia is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles chapter 16. Lydia lived in a different area of the world from Jesus. Like many of us today –she was from someplace else.
Although she never even saw Jesus, she got to know Jesus personally after being introduced to him by Paul. She was a career woman, a merchant who became a Christian through listening to the teachings of Jesus. She became his daughter as she turned her face toward him, and scripture tells us as she listened her heart was opened.
She formed a new partnership –with Jesus and she took care of the early church by provision. Her example set into motion ministry that included sending collections to other Christian communities in need of help.
Do you study the teachings of Jesus? Do you partner with Jesus?
Women who don’t work outside the home also need Jesus. They need Jesus to better serve their family and community. In Matthew chapter 8 it says: “14 Jesus entered the house of Peter, and saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. 15 He touched her hand, the fever left her, and she rose and waited on him.”
When you are sick and tired of being sick and tired, do you allow Jesus to come into your life and touch you?
Focusing your life with Jesus as your basic need brings joy, peace and fulfillment right to your doorstep!
What about the women of the New Testament who turned away from Jesus?
How about Salome? She was a great dancer. I wonder how many years she studied? How many hours of practice? But instead of dancing before the Lord to honor God the way King David did, she was a people pleaser. She pleased King Herod so much in front of his friends that as a reward he promised her anything she wanted. Then, to please her mother, she asked for the head of John the Baptist on a platter.
Look at the influence of people pleasers. Even though King Herod liked the prophet he wanted to please the people who heard his promise and thus ordered the death of John, John whose only crime was that he spent his life trying to please God. People pleasing or God pleasing? Both John the Baptist and Salome are long gone. Whose eternity would you want to share? Their choices, their decisions affected eternity.
Another people pleaser in the New Testament was Sapphira. [suh/fie/rah ] In the early church, people were generously sharing what they had with other members of the Church. Some even sold property and gave the proceeds to the Apostles to distribute. Sapphira [suh/fie/rah ] and her husband saw how this pleased the crowd of people and decided to sell some property too. But, secretly, they hid part of the proceeds yet pretended to give it all. The Holy Spirit revealed their ‘people pleasing’ to the head of the Church, the apostle Peter, And when Peter called them on it, first the husband and then Sapphira [suh/fie/rah ] fell down dead at his feet.
It had seemed to others she was serving God, but in her heart something else was going on. She turned away from pleasing the Lord to please the people, the world and died.
Sapphira [suh/fie/rah ] and Salome were both ‘people pleasers’. They chose poorly. The fate worse than death is the rejection of truth and life everlasting.
When you choose Christ, even though you die, you have life within you.
You have a choice to live as a Bride of Christ or as a ‘people pleaser’. Choose Christ. Christ is with you to the end of time and beyond.
When we read about the Blessed Virgin Mary, do the scriptures tell us she is glamorous and fashionable? Can you imagine Joseph and Mary on the TV show “The Bachelor”? Can you imagine her in a modern advertisement for new cars, vacations or long-lasting lipstick? The thing is Mary is a role model for us. Mother Mary continues through the generations to inspire women to pray and to turn toward Jesus. Her claim to fame? A decision–she said yes to God and the world was changed. A great decision. So glad she said yes.
Do you have trouble making decisions—even simple ones? Have you ever had to make a tough decision? Does this nail polish go with this outfit? Tough decision! We laugh but a lot of decisions can actually fit in this category. Here are two categories for you to consider. Does the decision I make in the next few moments affect eternity –or not? Things that don’t effect eternity will fade away like the dew. Or like nail polish. They are chipped away until none is left. Jesus said, “Why are you anxious about clothes?”
In the Gospel of Matthew chapter 6 Jesus said 30* If God so clothes the grass of the field, … will he not much more provide for you?” Jesus says, “31So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear?’ 32All these things the pagans seek.” Jesus says “Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33But seek first the kingdom (of God) and his righteousness,* and all these things will be given you besides.”
Seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness is an example of a great eternal decision.
What are eternal decisions? They are decisions you make that affect relationship with Jesus. How do you build relationship with Jesus? Spend quality time with him: Prayer, Mass, scripture, and time to be with his friends. Look around you. Did you know that, by listening today, you have affected eternity? You know another way you can affect eternity? Share Jesus with others. You don’t have to be a theologian to learn and share you faith. Start by sharing your own faith testimony—your word of witness– with people you know.
In the Bible, when Paul writes to Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a Christian, Paul recalls the sincere faith of Timothy’s grandmother, Lois, who found Jesus first, and in his mother, Eunice.
Brand new Church and brand new Christians and there is already 3 generations…
Sharing your faith with members of your family is critical. How can you share Jesus with others? Do as Jesus did! Jesus not only formed disciples He trained them to make other disciples.
In my home parish, I sing in the funeral choir. Time after time my heart is so sad because I see the families of the deceased who have turned away from their Catholic faith. Whole families who do not join their surviving parent in receiving Holy Communion. Perhaps we have failed because when we provided for our family’s needs we forgot to focus on their basic need: Jesus!
Maybe you are thinking, “but my children are already raised”. Or, “I am just a kid, what can I do?” It’s never too early or too late to share the Good News with others. Every point of your life is important and can be pleasing to God. You are not too young. Jesus tells us to be as little children to enter the kingdom of heaven; Mary was barely a teenager when the angel Gabriel appeared to her. And you are not too old. One of the first women to publicly share Jesus with others was the prophetess Anna, 84 years old, who at the Presentation in the Temple “spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem”.
Maybe you’ve seen the T-shirt: Preach the Gospel—use words if necessary. Today, words are necessary. Our years of silent witness have failed. Pope Paul VI said, “The Good News proclaimed by the witness of life sooner or later has to be proclaimed by the word of life. There is no true evangelization if the name, the teaching, the life, the promises, the kingdom and the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God are not proclaimed.” (22).
When was the last time you proclaimed the kingdom of God? When was the last time you proclaimed the promises of Christ? In the Gospels, Jesus gave over 250 promises, including Matthew 24:35 when Jesus said: ”Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My WORDS shall not pass away.”
The Samaritan woman at the well met Jesus face to face and was transformed by his presence. She then went to the village and proclaimed the Good News. The village, realizing that they needed Jesus too, went to him. Based on her personal testimony, they encountered Jesus “and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.” Too long Catholics have been skipping this important step of sharing their faith and experiences with others.
Why aren’t there more Catholics evangelizers in every pew during these modern times? My generation was taught the faith by dedicated nuns and priests. But we were never taught how to make disciples. We are not obedient disciples if we do not fulfill the Word of Jesus who orders us to “make disciples”. Without disciples there can be no priests and nuns. Without disciples the Church fades from the culture. Today the need stares us in the face as morality and belief seem to crumble at an alarming rate.
We need Jesus!
We must consider our duty to share our faith with family and with other women. Look around at church, at work, or shopping, or anywhere. I’m going to ask each of you listening to share Jesus with one other woman today. Does that seem impossible for you? In Isaiah it says “You shall call, and the LORD will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will say: “Here I am!”
Whenever the world needs Jesus He is here. Do you need Jesus today?
Isn’t the Lord wonderful to draw us together to share this moment! It is important for women to share our faith with each other and build each other up, especially now when the world tries to tell us that Christianity is not important.
if you need Jesus, raise your hand, right now! Who do we need? “we need Jesus.”
You’ve been listening to Truth of the Spirit, I’m Patti Brunner. You can continue hearing the truth easily by subscribing. It makes it very easy and it’s free. You can read about Women Needing Jesus on my blog on the PatriarchMinistries.com website. You’ll also find descriptions and links to our other audio and videos of Truth of the Spirit. And be sure and come back next time for more, because with the Holy Spirit, there’s always more!
