Woman's place within the kingdom of God

Something that has long nagged at me, well, actually bothered me, is if God considered women as equally as he does men. In the Bible it mentions that men were made by God in God's image and woman from man.

Today I finally did a go-ogle search and found this that encouraged me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_Bible

New Testament

[edit]Jesus' interactions with women

Main article: Jesus' interactions with women

According to New Testament scholar Dr. Frank Stagg and classicist Evelyn Stagg, the synoptic Gospels of the canonical New Testament^[9] contain a relatively high number of references to women. The Staggs find no recorded instance where Jesus disgraces, belittles, reproaches, or stereotypes a woman. These writers claim that examples of the manner of Jesus are instructive for inferring his attitudes toward women and show repeatedly how he liberated and affirmed women.^[5]

Jesus accepted the gifts of loving service and gentleness that women offered Him. Twenty-four times in the Gospel of Luke alone, Jesus either met a woman, talked about a woman, or mentioned a woman in a parable. All of these 24 times are instructive and positive.^[10]

Jesus’ sense of manhood was never threatened by the tenderness of a woman. Luke told of a woman who came into a banquet, knelt, wept over Jesus’ feet, bathing them with her tears, and then anointed them with perfume before drying them with her hair.^{[Lk 7:36—50]} This was her act of repentance. Jesus allowed her to do this without any trace of disgust or embarrassment. While no rabbi of Jesus’ day is known to have included women among his disciples,Jesus included women in his circle of followers—even women from questionable backgrounds.^[10]

In contrast to current attitudes, Jesus is never exploitative of women. He is the one man who dared to talk openly with the woman at the well in John 4. He breached every standard of his culture by doing that. And yet the woman, even while she was being exposed for everything that she was—a woman with multiple marriages and a sordid life—was never threatened. Jesus never humiliated her. He simply lifted her out of her filth and gently clothed her in the righteousness of her Heavenly Father.... Jesus never intimidated or sexually threatened a woman, and He was never threatened or intimidated by a woman. ...Jesus lifted and affirmed every woman who came to Him.^[10]

"Jesus lifted and affirmed every woman who came to Him." This sentence makes my heart warm and my face smile.  This thought comforts and helps reaffirm what I already know deep in my heart. I am loved.