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Ten Women of the Bible Study Guide: One by One They Changed the World

Name: Ten Women of the Bible Study Guide: One by One They Changed the World
Rating: 4.22 (29 reviews)

Max Lucado, Jenna Lucado Bishop

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Do you ever feel like a second-class citizen in this world?

Do you wonder how God could possibly use you to change lives?

For women in Bible times, these weren't even questions they thought about. Being overlooked, marginalized, having your contributions discounted because you're a woman...it's just the way things were. In this 10-lesson workbook, Max Lucado tells some of his favorite accounts of women in Scripture and the remarkable way God broke down cultural barriers to use them in the unfolding of His story.

You will discover...

Sarah, the woman whom God promised would give birth to a nation, but who tried to rush things when God's promises didn't seem to be coming to pass. Rahab, a prostitute in the Canaanite city of Jericho, who would save herself and her family through her faith in the one true God of the Israelites. Abigail, a woman forced to play peacemaker by the barbaric behavior of her husband. Esther, a young queen whom God placed in the Persian court for “such a time as this” to prevent the genocide of the Jewish people. Mary, the young virgin pledged to Joseph, whom God would choose to give birth to Jesus, the promised Messiah who would save the world. The Samaritan Woman, who would meet this Messiah at a well one day. His words would forever after change her life.   The Canaanite Woman, who made God smile with her wit and faith, and who received from Jesus an answer to her prayer. Mary of Bethany, a friend of Jesus who witnessed the resurrection of her brother, Lazarus, and then anointed Christ in anticipation of his death and resurrection. Mary Magdalene, who followed Jesus despite the injustice of a world that judged her for her past and said she would always be considered a failure. Sapphira, a woman in the early church who, along with her husband, made the unfortunate (and deadly) decision to lie to the Holy Spirit. These stories show us there is a God who sees us where we are and loves us for who we are. He is the one who hovers over all the pages of the Bible, shaping lives, rescuing hearts, healing sicknesses, raising what was dead to life, and passing out high callings to those who choose to follow him and have faith in him.

Each lesson

5 Daily in-depth Bible studies to help you explore the stories in Scripture Daily points to remember to help you summarize the key points Daily prayers to help you focus your thoughts and move into your quiet time Weekly memory verses to help you hide God's word in your heart Additional notes to help you lead a group through the study Ten Women of the Bible is a standalone workbook, ideal for both individual use and for study in a small-group setting.

GenresChristianReligionNonfictionChristianityUnfinished

436 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 3, 2016

938 people are currently reading

580 people want to read

About the author

Max Lucado

1,202 books5,445 followers

With more than 150 million products in print and several NYT bestsellers, Max Lucado is America's bestselling inspirational author. He serves the Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, Texas, where he lives with his wife, Denalyn, and their mischievous mutt, Andy. His most recent book published in August 2024 and is titled What Happens Next.

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5 stars

189 (54%)

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87 (25%)

3 stars

41 (11%)

2 stars

16 (4%)

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13 (3%)

Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews

Nathan Albright

4,488 reviews160 followers

March 18, 2017

This book, plain and simple, is a cash grab. Perhaps at some point Max Lucado was a good writer, but at this point his writings are all cut-and-paste disappointments [1]. When one can read a great many excellent works by and/or about women [2], why would you want pale imitations like this one? That is the question faced by any potential reader of this book. This is not only the sort of book that is not worth paying for, it is the sort of book that may disappoint many people to get for free. One wonders to what extent the author himself is aware of the works that are being published in his name, given the fact that this book is so disappointing. I hope that someone on the author's team, whether the author himself or his agent or publisher, can let him know that his brand name is simply being hurt too much by films like this to let it go on. Someone has to pull the plug and let his career be over before his work becomes something to actively avoid rather than merely find redundant and unnecessary.

Those who are familiar with books about women will not be surprised at the way this book is organized. The author chooses to talk about ten women, and woman gets five days worth of studies, making this a fifty-day devotional study, unless this is meant to be done over teen weeks, only including the week-days. The women chosen include many of my favorite women in the Bible: Sarah, Rahab, Abigail, Esther, Mary the Mother of Jesus, the Samaritan Woman, the Canaanite woman at the well, Mary of Bethany, Mary Magdalene, and the one baddie of the lot, Sapphira. The chapters themselves include biblical scriptures on the far left and right sides, but include a lot of material that barely has anything to do with the subject at hand. Even though all of the chapters are named for women, the accounts themselves focus far more on the men involved than the women, to the point where there are times that more than half of the material barely even mentions the woman who serves as the unifying principle behind the section. At times, it would seem, it is too much trouble for the author and his faith assistant/daughter (?) to keep track of who the material is supposed to be about. At least the questions asked in the material is generally worthwhile.

So, why would someone get this book? It's a mystery to me. How many people are going to rush out a book because it has Max Lucado's name on it? Anyone at this point who considers his name as a selling point for a book needs to become acquainted with better books. This book is meandering, tedious, and filled with all kinds of material which is largely irrelevant to the stories about the women who are the nominal subject matter of the book. It is perhaps no surprise that the titular author would have little involvement with the work, given the wide variety of his sources that are combined together to make this frankenbook. It is more of a surprise that the added material was from a woman, someone who presumably would understand and be interested in what the Bible has to say about women, and still not be able to add enough material about the biblical women to make this a more interesting book. How does a book fail so ineptly? At least the women themselves and what the Bible has to say about them is good, however poorly the author and his faithful assistant present the biblical material.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2015...

[2] See, for example:

http://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017/...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2015...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2013...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2013...

challenge2017

Lori Benson

492 reviews4 followers

February 6, 2025

I am not finishing this book. And I usually love this author for Bible studies but the title is very deceiving. I was all prepared to dig deep into Women of the Bible and it focuses on the men. The week on Sarah is really about Abraham and she barely is mentioned. Rahab isn’t mentioned until day 3 on her week. Abigail is really about David and I am on day 4 of Esther and she’s barely mentioned. I’m done. Moving on. Needs a new title to match subject.

Beverly

458 reviews

June 2, 2017

I went through this study with a high school student. I think the writing is well done and I loved the everyday person's story that Max Lucado would use to get across his point. I don't think I learned anything new but it was a refreshing looking on Ten Women in the Bible.

Molly Raymond

12 reviews2 followers

April 19, 2024

I enjoyed participating in a group study with this material and appreciate how it sets up groups for discussion. However, in general I am not a fan of over modernization of the stories and use of little bits of common phrases and comparisons for what feels like entertainment. There is time where the contextualizing feels more like it’s trying to be a clever observation rather than helpful information or insight.

Elaine Lucky

1,128 reviews120 followers

August 28, 2024

This was an OK study but nothing to writer home about. It seemed to have more stories about men instead of the women spotlighted. I didn't care for Max's "re imagining" of the stories because it made women seem cheap and second class. A lot of recycled information. Not that great and not that bad. I can think of many studies that I would recommend over this one

christian

Lisa

133 reviews13 followers

December 17, 2022

This book was demeaning. Half the stories focused on the men far more than the women. And the author often wrote about the women as if he was writing a trashy novel. He embellished the stories by hyper focusing on how he thought the women looked, using phrases like "imagine a neck snapping blond" and "her low cut robe revealed a lacy fringe of secrets that Victoria couldn't keep."

TheBibleWithTina

352 reviews4 followers

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August 1, 2020

Leslie

Author 12 books15 followers

January 12, 2024

I debated on giving this 4 stars instead of 3, but landed on 3 for the main reason that the book doesn't talk about women much. In each of the ten chapters, the focus quickly shifts from the woman of interest to the men in her story. I'll grant that it is challenging to come up with five full days of study material on many of the women, but as someone who was looking forward to learning more about the under-mentioned gender in the Bible, this was disappointing.
On a positive note, the book did have a lot of interesting discussion topics and thought-provoking questions for each day of study.

Rick Farlee

1,154 reviews10 followers

May 20, 2022

KINDLE BOOK

I thoroughly enjoyed the Bible study and although I didn’t really learn any new revelations, I always enjoy reading Max’s spin on scriptures… I think that the top three lessons were about Abigail, Mary of Bethany and the Canaanite woman. (I also think that a chapter on Deborah would be interesting.)
Like all of Max Lucado books, this one is also HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Lorinda Brenize

2 reviews

March 5, 2024

Read this book in a small group from church and loved learning more about some of the women I already knew their stories but also learning about some of the women that aren’t mentioned that much through out the Bible, to hear their stories and how God used them for the good was definitely inspiring.

Hilary

205 reviews2 followers

May 1, 2019

Did this study with a small group. I think this would be good for a new Christian, but I found the questions to be too simplistic. We did a little more than half of the study and opted not to finish it.

bible-studies

Gina Hormann

36 reviews

March 11, 2021

Just finished this book for my church’s women’s bible study and I loved it! The Mary of Bethany and Sapphira chapters were my favorite and they really challenged me in my walk with the Lord. We need to hear hard truths sometimes and I’m grateful that Max Lucado didn’t hold back. Great book!

Luane t clemmer

36 reviews1 follower

May 6, 2025

These women featured in this book, tell us how the Lord uses women to tell of their faith and their walk with the Lord.. stories in this book it's just a great reminder of how the Lord can use each woman in today's world. Very encouraging study to read

Bonnie Palmer

70 reviews8 followers

February 1, 2019

I used this book as a study for several ladies in my life group. We enjoyed it very much, but I wouldn't say it was great nor one of Lucado's best.

Sandy Gartin

450 reviews1 follower

May 24, 2019

Very interesting. Studied it with my Sunny Street Bible group

Susan

347 reviews

August 15, 2019

I really enjoyed the women of the Old Testament. The women of the New Testament had limited information and went off on a tangent about the men.

Ginger Jackson

36 reviews1 follower

May 24, 2020

10 women of the bible

I enjoyed reading about women of the bible. To experience daily life through their eyes is fascinating and often quite difficult.

Karen

26 reviews1 follower

August 30, 2020

So blessed by this study

Carol

87 reviews

June 8, 2021

Did this study as part of Church Womens Bible study. We took about15 weeks or so, splitting up each chapter into two sessions. Very intriguing. Good study

Lennett

191 reviews

December 14, 2021

Good study.

Jill

1,213 reviews9 followers

April 8, 2023

Max Lucado is by far one of my favorite non-fiction Christian authors. I have never read a book of his that I have not learned from and enjoyed throughly.

Shirley

64 reviews1 follower

December 11, 2023

3.5 stars

Holly (bibliophiles_bookstagram)

699 reviews14 followers

February 16, 2024

I loved Max Lucado, and learned a lot from this book and discussions. I wanted more perspective from women….which is super hard when they aren’t too often mentioned in the Bible.

Kayla Hamilton

28 reviews2 followers

December 10, 2025

SO good

Anna Pardue

298 reviews1 follower

December 12, 2025

Really good Bible study for a group.

truenorth

585 reviews1 follower

December 17, 2025

A book meant for women but I read it and there were inspiring points for a man as well!

Toi Thomas

Author 18 books74 followers

March 16, 2024

1/24 DNF. Reading too many devotionals at once.
Returned later to finish it 3/2024.

This is a good general Bible Study. It does feel lacking in the area of being about women from the Bible. Many of the women seemed to serve as introductions to the stories of men in the Bible.

Overall, worth the time if you are looking for something Biblically related about women.

nonfiction other-interest spiritual