I spent many years as a family pastor looking for good resources to give to parents who wanted to teach their kids the Bible. If you've ever rummaged through the kids section of Christian book stores, you've probably already realized that there is not much to offer in this vain. The shelves are full of poorly illustrated children's bibles whose main applications are "be nice," and "use God to get what you want" (not surprising since many of the adult bestsellers are identical). My ambition was to one day be involved with the writing of a children's bible that would be worth reading to kids to point out to them the Gospel of Jesus.
I no longer have this ambition because author Sally Lloyd-Jones published the "Jesus Storybook Bible." This book is fantastic. It presents the Bible as a cohesive story with Jesus as the hero and main character and wonderfully ties in the redemptive historical perspective of God's kingdom that is central to understanding Scripture. In her retelling of the Biblical stories, Lloyd-Jones emphasizes faith in God who keeps His promises to redeem mankind instead of emphasizing rule keeping Christianity that is faithless and dead. The beautiful prose and illustrations have kept my three-year-old captivated and made his little prayer life more vibrant. Consider the following exerpt:
"You see, God knew, however high they reached, however hard they tried, people could never get back to heaven by themselves. People didn't need a staircase; they needed a Rescuer. Because the way back to heaven wasn't a staircase; it was a Person.
People could never reach up to Heaven, so Heaven would have to come down to them.
And, one day, it would" (from the closing of the story about the tower in Babel from Genesis 11).
I highly recommend this resource to anyone with kids and have jokingly mentioned to my wife that I may begin preaching out of this book.
5 comments:
Great Post. Thanks Pastor. Looks like a real winner. We should put this in the hand of every parent who desires to soften their childrens heart to the story of the good news of their King.
thank you kurt for loving children and understanding that they really do understand more than they are given credit for. they deserve something true and honest. also you should think about finding a side job writing reviews for books...very nice.
thank you kurt for loving children and understanding that they really do understand more than they are given credit for. they deserve something true and honest. also you should think about finding a side job writing reviews for books...very nice.
Cool, thanks for the recommendation. We've been looking for some good stuff for my little girl.
I hope things are going well in Asheville. Did you ever hear from my friend? I haven't heard from him in a while.
Hi, I came across your blog and thought I'd stop by and say Hi. Thank you so much Pastor Kurt for this very thoughtful and lovely review of the book. And your very kind words.
Thank you, most of all, for your part in helping spread the word (!) and get the book into more hands (big and small!).
You may be interested to know about some resources--a radio interview where I talk about the book and what it was like writing it and also read 6 of the stories from the book. I also did an a blog interivew with Dan Cruver at Eucatastrophe--which sparked some great debate and comments--all available on my blog (tag "BIBLE").
There are also reviews and more--plus downloadable samples on my website for anyone who is unsure yet and would like to read more... (sallylloyd-jones.com)
Thanks again--and God's blessings on your ministry and blogging
Post a Comment