Redeeming-Love-By-Francine-Rivers

R E D E E M I N G L O V E
He decided to press it. “You think maybe that could’ve been part of it?”
“Whatever my mother believed, it doesn’t mean I belong in a church any
more than she ever did.”
“If Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary belonged, I think there might be a
place for you.”
“I don’t know a single one of those women.”
“Rahab was a prostitute. Ruth slept at the feet of a man she wasn’t married
to, on a public threshing floor. Bathsheba was an adulteress. When she
found she was pregnant, her lover plotted the murder of her husband. And
Mary became pregnant by Someone other than the man she was betrothed
to marry.”
Angel stared at him. “I didn’t know you made a habit of running with
fast women.”
Michael laughed. “They’re named in the lineage of Christ. In the beginning
of the book of Matthew.”
“Oh,” she said blandly and gave him a resentful glance. “You think you
can march me right into a corner, don’t you? Well, tell me something. If all
that garbage is true, why didn’t the priest speak to my mother? It seems she
fit right in to such exalted company.”
“I don’t know, Amanda. Priests are only men. They’re not God. They
come with their own personal prejudices and faults just like anyone else.”
He snapped the reins lightly over the horses’ backs. “I’m sorry about your
mother, but I’m worried about you.”
“Why? Are you afraid if you don’t save my soul, I’ll go to hell?”
She was mocking him. “I think you’ve had a good taste of it already.” He
snapped the reins again. “I don’t plan on preaching at you, but I don’t plan
on giving up what I believe, either. Not to make you comfortable. Not for
anything.”
Her fingers tightened around the brace. “I didn’t ask you to.”
“Not in so many words, but there’s a certain pressure brought to bear on
a man when his wife is sitting and waiting outside in a wagon.”
“How about when a man drags his wife into church?”
He glanced at her. “I guess you’ve got a point. I’m sorry.”
She looked straight ahead again and bit her lip. Letting out a shaky
228