1. Know Jesus Christ as Lord (Phil 3:8)
2. Love the Word of God (Psalm 119:97)
3. Understand the gravity of sin and repent of it (Rom 6:23)
4. Realise the greatness of the mercy of God (Luke 18:13)
5. Obey and respect authority of their parents (Exodus 20:12)
6. Glorify and enjoy God in all circumstances (1 Thess. 5:18)
7. Devote themselves in persistent prayer (Luke 18: 1-8)
Recommended Resource:
Hurray! 66 Books One Story has just arrived! I’m so pleased. There are only two advance copies and they had to peel my fingers off one of them in order to get a photograph taken of it. The author, Paul Reynolds, has done an excellent job. This overview of the bible is just what is needed for families who are doing devotions together or young children who are starting their own personal bible reading. It gives all the background information you need to each bible book as well as summarizing the teaching and showing how Christ and Salvation is central to all of Scripture. Jeff Anderson’s cover for this book just jumps off the page at you – and though you can’t see it on this post the inside illustrations are absolutely brilliant. I love the two tone black and red look that’s going on.
66 Books One Story is currently available in the UK direcly from Christian Focus and many other Christian bookstores. Be on the lookout for for 66 Books One Story in the US this coming March.
What better way to start the new year than by getting into God’s word together!
Jen Kallimer has edited this book for the 100th anniversary of WEC. It is a compilation of thirty or so true stories from the pens of missionary kids. It is about children who accompanied their parents to the mission field and how God helped them in a variety of situations. Some kids needed help settling into their new culture; making friends; coping with strange and scary insects. Others struggled with really dangerous situations such as facing up to wild dogs, revolutions, natural disasters. But God helped them through all these predicaments.
This books gives you a ‘kids-eye’ perspective on life in missions.
For more information on WEC international visit www.wec-int.org.
Where to Buy:
The Golden Chariot: True Stories of God at Work is available at any good Christian bookstore. If you don’t have a Christian bookstore near you, you may want to consider purchasing a copy from one of the online book retailers listed below:
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Recommended Books:
It’s really cool to see the artwork coming in for this book now. Jeff Anderson has a great flair for illustration and I love the slightly different style he’s using these days. The magical look of the cover really grabs my attention. An overview of the Bible is an excellent tool that every family should have. When you’re reading the Bible with your family a book like this will help everyone get a handle on what the Bible is teaching in each book, what the themes are, when things happened and how Jesus is at the centre of God’s Word in the Old testament and the New.
With the addition of this little book on God’s Word – the My 1st Series now comes up to eight titles. Each cover is a different colour, making a row of eight little candy-coloured booklets that children will love to collect and learn from. Written by Carine Mackenzie this book will help you train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:5-7.
Children need to know about God and his Word. We all do. We need to know that God’s Word is true, eternal, pure, living, perfect, inspired, without error.
It’s exciting to see God’s Word at work in our world and children will see this too as God’s Word acts as a seed, a sword, a fire and food in people’s lives.
I’m certain that at least one of the Narnia films will be on the television over Christmas this year. There’s something about C.S. Lewis that says Christmas to me. I love the joy of that moment in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe when the children run from what they think is the White Witch only to find out that Father Christmas has arrived with gifts. It makes you realise that you are reading the work of someone who never forgot the pure joy of story and the wonder of childhood.
But this magical story-teller has a story of his own. That is why I’m flagging up C.S. Lewis as this week’s hero. Affectionately known as Jack to his family and close friends Clive Staples Lewis’ story is more than how he wrote a world-famous children’s fiction series. He made talking animals believable but it was his own battle with doubt that makes C.S. Lewis’ story one that every child should read. From Atheist to Christian Apologist is quite a journey. Today young people need to know that there were and are great thinkers who thought about God and the Bible – and believed its truth.
Below are some of our books that go further into C.S. Lewis’ life and writings:
Following on from their previous two successes, Our Home is Like a Little Church and What is the Church? the writing and illustrating team at Sojourn church, in Louisville Kentucky have come up with What is the Gospel?. This is an important area for children to understand – that God has a message of Good News for them. This message is that though we sin and have disobeyed God we can have life and joy as part of God’s kingdom. This book explains what the gospel is – not just parts of it. Through the themes of God’s Kingdom, God’s Cross and God’s Grace you can explain to your child the important message of salvation – the same one that is taught at home and at church. This book makes a neat little trilogy of faith for your family.
Where to Buy:
What is the Gospel?, Our Home is Like a Little Church, and What is the Church? are all available at any good Christian bookstore. If you don’t have a Christian bookstore near you, you may want to consider purchasing a copy from one of the online book retailers listed below:
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This is another excellent book to get your kids into theology – and modelling. Jean Stapleton’s book – God’s Special Tent combines the great rainy day activity of making your own tabernacle model along with the excellent teaching about what the Tabernacle actually means. There is a cut out section in the middle of the book along with detailed instructions.
Visit www.christianfocus.com to find out more and purchase your own copy.
Other books by Jean Stapleton:
I love it when you see a child’s vocabulary expanding. They hear a word in conversation and before you know it they are turning it out at every opportunity. I think we sometimes underestimate children and their ability to express themselves. We patronise them by thinking that they won’t understand certain words – and as a result we can often omit to teach them some key spiritual lessons and doctrinal facts. But here’s a fact – children learn and they learn well and if we teach them well they will understand. This is something that Nicholas Choy the author of Words About God has grasped through teaching his own young child the truths about God. He has realised that children need to and indeed can worship God – and that they can be helped in this by good teaching. With twenty-eight different words that describe God’s wonderful nature and character your child can be exposed to a variety of amazing insights to the person of God. There are some encouraging commendations for this book, one of which mentions how rare it is that you get a children’s book that is both inspiring in content and pleasing in design – but that Words about God is such a book! Pick it up yourself and you will see that each page ‘brilliantly illustrates great Christian truths about God.’ Justin K Hardin, University of Oxford.
Where to Buy:
Word’s About God: to help you worship Him is available at any good Christian bookstore. If you don’t have a Christian bookstore near you, you may want to consider purchasing it from one of the online book retailers, including those listed below:
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This is one of those books that I think we should have published long ago – we just didn’t have the idea until Carine Mackenzie came up with it. Connie Dever, wife of Mark Dever at Capitol Hill Baptists in Washington reviewed it and came back to me saying, ‘Love, love, love this book.’ Others too have reviewed it very favourably. Perhaps you’re a bit surprised at this reaction? As human beings we often shy away from change – we like the status quo, and having our lives just the way we want them, just the way they are. But with God change is important, it’s necessary – not for him as he is perfect, holy, the same yesterday today and forever – but for sinful human beings change or conversion is what we need - to be reconciled to God. Children need this too – because a human being’s need of change is there right from the moment of conception. Our default position is sin – and it is only the saving and regenerating power of God that can bring this change into being.
In this book we are introduced to several New Testament characters whose lives were changed and souls converted through meeting Jesus. Thieves and murderers as well as a fisherman and a business woman – are amongst the people who turned from their sin and were accepted by God the Father. The righteousness of Christ was given to them and their sin placed on Christ instead. This book not only tells children about those who were converted in the Bible – it shows them how they too need to come to accept the free offer of salvation offered to them in God’s Word.
Where to Buy:
How God Changes People is available at any good Christian bookstore. If you don’t have a Christian bookstore near you, you may want to consider purchasing it from one of the online book retailers, including those listed below:
