Archive for Carine Mackenzie

My 1st Book About the Bible by Carine Mackenzie

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Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013

My 1st Book About the Bible by Carine Mackenzie

Finding age appropriate resources to introduce key biblical and theological concepts to your little ones can be quite challenging. We understand how important it is to help children begin developing a solid worldview at a young age and that’s precisely why Christian Focus 4 Kids continues to grow the My First Book series.

The My First Book series is a catechism-like resource designed to help you teach your children about God, the Bible, and the Church. Below is a sample reading from My 1st Book About the Bible:

2. The Word of God lasts forever

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Mark 13:31

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Isaiah 40:8

The clothes you have today will one day wear out. Your toys will break and be thrown away. The flowers in the garden wither and die. God tells us that even the world we live in, will be burned up and come to an end. But God’s Word will never be destroyed. It will last forever.

We’re excited to introduce Carine Mackenzie’s latest contribution to this series titled My 1st Book About the Bible. Over the course of twenty-five brief lessons, this book explores the following questions:

  • What is the Word of God?
  • What does the Word of God do?
  • What is the Word of God like?

Measuring approximately 4″ by 6″ the books in the My 1st Book series are just the right size for little hands. If you have little ones ages 4-6, we recommend that you read these books along with your children. If your children are ages 6-11, they will be able to read these books on their own. In either case, we pray that the My 1st Book series becomes a starting point for many great discussions in your home.

About the Author:
Carine Mackenzie’s talent for retelling Bible stories has meant that children from all over the world have been given the opportunity to discover Jesus Christ for themselves. The first title written in the kitchen with the assistance of a basin of water has inspired the production of many other books. Carine now has more than 150 different titles in print.

Other Titles in the My First Book Series:

Where to Buy:
My 1st Book About the Bible 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:

My First Book About the Bible by Carine MacKenzie Buy Now:
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New in the Trailblazers Series – John Knox: The Sharpened Sword

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Wednesday, January 30th, 2013

John Knox The Sharpened Sword by Catherine MacKenzieJohn Knox: The Sharpened Sword is the latest addition to CF4K’s Trailblazers series. This book presents a great opportunity to introduce your children and grandchildren to the exciting life and world of John Knox. Here’s a sample from the first chapter:

“Nobody saw fit to write down the date of his birth. Perhaps John’s birthday became a day that the Knox family chose to forget. There may have been too many heartbreaking memories attached to a time that changed their lives so drastically.

However, the baby whose birthday was forgotten grew up to become one of the most important people of his era. Hundreds of years after his death the ordinary people of Scotland would look back on John Knox as a man to whom they personally owed a great debt … and not only the people of Scotland. His influence spread across the whole of the Western World.

John Knox came into a world where education was a privilege for the rich and well off; where the Roman Catholic Church owned half of Scotland’s wealth and where democracy was pretty much unheard of. In fact, the Roman Catholic Church at that time was eighteen times more wealthy than the Scottish monarchy. However, it is because of Knox’s influence that Scotland brought free education to all its children. Two hundred years after Knox’s death, the American declaration of independence was signed – a document greatly influenced by Knox’s heart and pen. One passionate Scottish preacher has so influenced the world we inhabit today, that we can thank him and his God for many of our liberties in education, government and religion.

This man who is portrayed today, 500 years after his birth, as dour, bitter and hypocritical couldn’t be further from that deceptive description. He was strong, fearless, passionate and full of surprises. Let’s find out about the first surprise – John Knox the bodyguard.”

About the Author:
Catherine Mackenzie has written several biographies for young teens in the Trailblazers series as well as other titles for younger children. She lives in Scotland and has several nieces and nephews – a perfect practice audience!

A full list of Catherine’s books is available here:  LINK.

Where to Buy:
John Knox: The Sharpened Sword 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:

John Knox The Sharpened Sword by Catherine MacKenzie Buy Now:
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My 1st Book About The Bible

By Catherine Mackenzie · Comments (0)
Tuesday, December 4th, 2012
My 1st Book About the Bible by Carine MacKenzie

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.

See a list of all eight books in the My 1st series here: LINK.
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Categories : Books by Carine Mackenzie, Carine Mackenzie, CF4K, Daily Readings and Devotionals, Doctrine, Pre-school, Sunday School Prizes, Theology 4 Kids, Vacation Bible School
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Recommended Review – My 1st Book of Questions and Answers

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Tuesday, July 3rd, 2012

“My family has been using the Westminster Shorter Catechism with good result with our children but it’s also been slow moving. Sometime the cadence and structure can be cumbersome for a four year old to repeat back and learn.

We had received My 1st Book of Questions and Answers when Claire my oldest was first born from our church. But it had been lost for a time and forgotten. Claire, now four, was recently walking around with it and I asked her what it was. She said it was her new Bible.

I took a quick look at it and saw some of the endorsements and was intrigued. After further examination later that night, I decided for now we would switch over to My 1st Book as our teaching tool.

The main benefit of this handy book is that it takes the some times wordy and confusing language structure (at least for a four year old) of the well-known catechism and conveys the same truths with precision.

It’s also recommended by Presbyterians and Baptists alike. From what we’ve used so far and from my examination of section on topics like baptism I don’t see anything that would prevent it being used with good results by either denominational members.

Our plan is to now use My First Book for the next year with my four year old and then start my youngest on over the next 6 months to a year. With just over a hundred questions you could easily complete the book 10 or 20 times over the course of 3 years. It’s the perfect tool to get children use to the question and answer style of learning and also prepare for a more advance catechism like the Westminster Shorter.”

-Mathew Sims (grace4sinners.blogspot.com)

 

  Buy the Book:
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Kid’s Theology – What else did God make? – Why did God make all things?

By Catherine Mackenzie · Comments (1)
Friday, March 16th, 2012

My First book of Questions and Answers has had a thorough going through – I just thought I’d tell you. Look at the commendations:

  • Douglas Kelly (the Richard Jordan Professor of Theology, Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte, North Carolina.)
  • Sinclair B Ferguson (Senior Minister of First Presbyterian Church of Columbia and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Systematic Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary).
  • R. C. Sproul (a respected teacher, theologian and pastor as well as founder and chairman of Ligonier Ministries.)
  • Alistair Begg (A pastor for over 30 years. He is now the Senior Pastor, Parkside Church, Chagrin Falls, Ohio)

And that’s just the theologians.

Families too have used this book. One of the commendations is from John and Noel Piper who used it when teaching their own daughter about the truths of the Christian faith.

“Truth, clarity and simplicity are the great virtues of this God-exalting catechism for children. It was a great pleasure to watch our daughter learn these answers. As usual teaching a child great truths enriched our thinking and our own worship.”

Here a sample lesson to share with your children, grandchildren, or Sunday school class.

3. What else did God make?

God made all things. (Genesis 1:31a).

4. Why did God make all things?

For his own glory. (Revelation 4:11).

Objective: To teach the children that God made all things for His own glory.

The most obvious choice of a story for this lesson is the creation (Genesis 1). It may be beneficial to give the children a worksheet about the six days of creation to fill in or colour. If you don’t have enough time, or feel it is too much for one lesson, simply spread the questions over two teaching sessions. Be less concerned about the children memorizing exactly what happened on each day, than on the wonder of creation. Stop and marvel at the beauty of God’s creation! Bring in some “simple” things: a pretty rock, some moss, a leaf, a flower, a caterpillar, a moth, etc. Point out the intricate design in each creation. Our God is an amazing God! You can easily tie in the simple gospel message: this great God is able to save you.

Questions:

1. Can you think of things that God made, that no one else is able to make?

2. Have you ever been amazed at God’s power and at the many beautiful things he made?

Related Resources:

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Categories : Carine Mackenzie, Kid's Theology
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Story Behind the Book – CF4K’s First Book

By Catherine Mackenzie · Comments (0)
Thursday, January 12th, 2012

Did you know that books have their own stories? Well they do. A book just doesn’t make itself. Lots of people are involved and it can be quite a tricky process. Today I’m going to tell you the story behind one of the first books Christian Focus Publications ever published. I’m going to give you the short version of it – one of these days I might give you the longer version. But here we go…

My Dad and Mum couldn’t find children’s bible stories in the shops… at least they couldn’t find ones that told the bible story in the way the bible told it. They didn’t like the pictures much either. Dad told Mum to write some. She did. She wrote Gideon – the Soldier of God and Mary – the Mother of Jesus. Because she was a very busy lady Mum had to work out how to find time to write and amuse her two year old girl at the same time. So what she did was get a basin of water, a notepad and pen. She let the little girl play with the water and she sat down to write. An hour later she had her first children’s book – and one very wet little toddler. After that there were many other books – 150 to be precise. But that’s all I have time for for now…you’ll have to wait for another post to find out about book 150!

Other Books in the Bible Time Series:

A full list of books in the Bible Time series is available here:  LINK

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