Pierced & Embraced: 7 Life-Changing Encounters with the Love of Christ
How would you describe the love of God?
Throughout the Gospel accounts, Jesus engaged women differently than He did men. Sometimes the difference is subtle. Sometimes it is stark. Always it is profound.
Sometimes the love He offers them is gentle. Sometimes it is fierce. Always it is powerful.
Sometimes that love feels like a warm embrace. Sometimes it’s more like a piercing jab. Always, it changes everything.
Women today long to experience the same sort of life-changing love that Jesus lavished on His followers 2000 years ago. We still want to be completely seen and known and valued and set free—as painful as that process might sometimes be.
Pierced and Embraced digs deeply into seven encounters that Jesus had with a wide variety of women in the Gospels to show how His love can be equally transformative in our lives today. It mixes attentive Scriptural engagement with personal narrative and relevant application, making the content fresh, accessible, engaging, and practical.
You will:
- Understand the unique and powerful and complex ways in which Jesus loves the women of the gospels.
- Recognize your own longings for love and the (often inadequate) ways we seek to satisfy them.
- Discover how to live in the fullness of Jesus’ love for you.
Includes study/reflection questions at the end of each chapter, inviting women to dig into the passages for themselves.
Winner of the ECPA's Top Shelf Cover Award 2017
Kelli Worrall honestly and artfully blends history, theology, and the complexities of everyday life. No stranger to sorrow or rerouted plans, Kelli invites us believe our belovedness, hold on to hope, and expect to be surprised.
Shannan Martin
Author of Falling Free: Rescued from the Life I Always Wanted
I love Kelli’s vulnerability! She masterfully invites us not only to life-changing encounters seven women had with Christ’s love but also allows us a front-row seat to her own encounters with Christ’s love. It’s moving and powerful. A must-read for everyone who needs to sink deeper into God’s love.
Becky Harling
International speaker, coach, and author of How to Listen So People Will Talk and Who Do You Say I Am?
As women, what do we expect when we come to Jesus? A harsh rebuke? Confirmation of our negative self-perceptions? An indifferent snub as the Savior of the world tends to more important matters? In Pierced and Embraced, Kelli Worrall skillfully helps us encounter the real Jesus as seven women in Scripture did. This is a Jesus who sees us, and loves us, and gently invites us into relationship—while also speaking with penetrating insight. These encounters changed the lives of these women 2,000 years ago, and they can likewise change ours today!
Julie Roys
National radio host and author of Redeeming the Feminine Soul: God’s Surprising Vision for Womanhood
Pierced and Embraced brings to life stories from the Bible that I’ve read hundreds of times. Kelli unfolds these encounters with deep and personal truths that will make Jesus’ love real to you. This is a great devotional or group study for every woman who wants to take the next step with Jesus.
Juli Slattery
Author, psychologist, and cofounder of Authentic Intimacy
I loved Kelli’s writing style—the way she married her own pain and brokenness with the real encounters Jesus had with other women. God’s Word comes alive because Kelli has both formal training and deep personal connection to Scripture. Enjoy the fresh insight she extracts from familiar biblical stories. This is a perfect Bible study for women who want practical, relatable principles for the circumstances they face today that are grounded in God’s Word rather than world philosophies.
Lorraine Pintus
Speaker, writing coach, and author of Jump Off the Hormone Swing
Christian living books for women using female biblical characters to convict and comfort are not in short supply. But they can also be shallow or predictable. In contrast, Pierced and Embraced presents the reader with layered and fresh expositional biblical teaching, introduced and illustrated by great literary stories, an unusual and welcome touch. Combined with credible and varied personal experiences, this gracefully written book reflects the author’s arduous and ongoing journey in coming to terms with the God who pierces and embraces, one that will inform other Christians’ pilgrimage.
Rosalie de Rosset
Professor of Communications and Literature, Moody Bible Institute
Kelli Worrall is a woman of great depth and insight, which translates well into her writing of Pierced and Embraced. This book will help the reader understand a personal Jesus through the way He ministers to the women of the Bible. In turn they will find, for the first time, or afresh, a Savior who loves them deeply and tenderly. I highly commend Kelli’s work to everyone needing a reminder of the Lord’s love for them. The reader should be prepared to be met on a deep soul level and to find security in His heart for them.
Cathy Bryant
Director of Women’s Ministry, Grace Community Bible Church
In Pierced and Embraced my friend Kelli Worrall examines the biblical accounts of several women whose lives were forever changed by the love of Jesus. Through her insightful unpacking of these narratives, and her honest reflections of her own life-altering encounters with the Savior, your heart (as mine was) will be drawn afresh to the intimate, unconditional, healing love of Jesus.
Lindsay McCaul
Singer and songwriter
With beautiful words and lovely imagery Kelli shares her heart’s response to the biblical account of women who were changed by their encounter with Jesus. She weaves biblical teaching with her own response and rich personal insight. Jesus sought out women to answer their deepest longings and needs by showing them who He was, which in turn clarified to them who they were. You will have a sweet heart connection with Kelli through her stories and insights, but more importantly you will be drawn to Jesus.
Pam MacRae
Professor of Applied Theology, Moody Bible Institute
Kelli is a brilliant storyteller and beautifully articulates Jesus’ heart for women. Pierced and Embraced gracefully reveals how God uses highs and heartache to draw us close, demonstrating His unfailing love and pursuit of His daughters.
Lisa Bishop
Director of Women’s Ministry, Park Community Church
Product Details
- Title : Pierced & Embraced: 7 Life-Changing Encounters with the Love of Christ
- Author: Worrall, Kelli
- Publisher: Moody Publishers
- Publication Date: 2017
- ISBN: 9780802496225
KELLI WORRALL is Professor of Communication at Moody Bible Institute, Chicago. She’s also a writer and a speaker and blogs at www.thisoddhouse.org. She coauthored the book 20 Things We’d Tell Our Twentysomething Selves with her husband, Peter (www.peterandkelli.com). Kelli received a B.S. in Communication from Cedarville University, a Masters degree in Religious Education from Trinity International University, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Roosevelt University. Kelli lives in McHenry, Illinois, with Peter and their two children, Daryl and Amelia.