Divya is a charismatic woman; educated, talented, courageous and hardworking. Her presence is felt in any room, the moment she begins to speak. One would think she has it all, but life for her has not been easy. The decision she made to follow the footsteps of Christ several years ago, had come with a cost.
The attraction of Christ for Divya was multidimensional; above all she was awed by how Jesus Christ worked to free and empower women. In the Bible she read that defying cultural norms, Jesus treated a commercial sex worker with dignity and love, challenging the accusing crowd of men to cast the first stone, if any of them were sinless. Jesus also brought freedom to a lady considered impure because of issue of blood, Jesus accepted her and healed her in full public view.
Divya learnt that the first person to preach the Gospel of Christ after Jesus rose from the dead was a woman named Mary. Furthermore, the Bible says that God created both women and men as equal. This great liberating truth suppressed by many a cultural practice. Women are in no way inferior to men. Jesus, by His grace, flings the door wide open for women and men to be in union with God. He paid the cost for our wayward life in order to reconcile us with God and one another.
Divya is further encouraged because God’s plan is to empower both women and men of all strata of society equally, with gifts of the Holy Spirit. Now that is spiritual democracy! God has no favourites, the doors of God’s grace for empowerment and service are equally open to all. Empowered by the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ, her role model, Divya addresses gender issues and works for women empowerment.
Imagine if followers of Jesus Christ, all over the world, practiced spiritual democracy which the Bible teaches and of which Jesus Christ is an example par excellence.