The Gospel Story Bible by Marty Machowski
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“The Gospel Story Bible” by Marty Machowski is a very colorful and richly illustrated bible that makes learning about the basic bible stories for kids fun, with interactive discussions for parents to discuss with their kids.
Having used this for some time, I like how from as young as 5 to even as old as 11, the stories help provide a basic, broad spectrum for the bible and get kids interested in learning more when they are ready to start reading the bible on their own.
In the meantime, “The Gospel Story Bible” provides a great basic starting point for families looking for ways to create a “Family Devotion Time” or just for nightly readings and discussions, before the kids go to bed.
Younger children will be captivated by the illustrations that abound in this book, while its still “sophisticated” enough for the older kids to get involved without feeling like the parables and stories share are not watered down or talking down to them and I was just very impressed by the discussion questions that are provided to help encourage discussions in the family about the Bible.
The book itself is a hardcover and really well bounded that I feel would last through several little hands and many nights of reading through the bible or even for use with family devotions and a great starting point for families who are wondering how to share God’s word with their younger kids.
Parents really won’t be able to get over the illustrations and how they beautifully capture the stories (along with Scriptural references) that are shared and will find that the illustrations, for the younger kids, really encourage not only just narration but gives kids a chance to have a medium to discover and re-tell the stories they’ve just heard on their own and I personally thought that it was “toddler hands” friendly from the way the pages are designed to the toddler friendly hard cover.
Though not spill free or mess proof, it still invites kids to even just look through the pictures, if they are not reading yet and provide them with eye catching images for parents to discuss the corresponding pictures with them.
The Gospel Story Bible, is a beautiful, well written bible for families and kids to share and something to look into adding into the family library.
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***Special thanks to Audra Jennings – The B&B Media Group – for sending me a review copy.***
Marty Machowski is a Family Life Pastor at Covenant Fellowship Church, a Sovereign Grace Ministries church in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, where he has served on the pastoral staff for twenty-three years. Marty leads Promise Kingdom, the children’s ministry of Covenant Fellowship. He is also the author of Long Story Short: Ten-Minute Devotions to Draw Your Family to God and the forthcoming Gospel Story Sunday school curriculum. He and his wife Lois and their six children reside in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
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ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR:
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Sometimes it’s easy to forget Jesus in the midst of frantic schedules, family squabbles and conflicting priorities. For many Christians, God often becomes little more than an afterthought after days absorbed and depleted by the busyness of life. But the truth is that he is the hero of every story—including the mundane, ordinary ones we experience on a regular basis. That is why Marty Machowski beckons families to take time out from the daily grind to be transformed by the message of the Good News in his latest release, The Gospel Story Bible: Discovering Jesus in the Old and New Testaments (New Growth Press, November 2011).
Based on the ESV Bible, this uniquely illustrated Bible storybook uses 156 stories to present God’s plan of salvation in Christ from its opening narrative in Genesis to its finale in Revelation. This easy-to-read storybook written for children from preschool to high school introduces readers to many captivating people, places and events from the Bible’s Old and New Testaments. At the same time, Machowski skillfully connects the individual stories to the overall gospel narrative of how God redeemed a broken world through sending his son Jesus to save his people. Each story ends by connecting to Jesus and his gospel of grace. By sharing these Bible stories with each other, young and old will learn together the life-changing habit of recognizing the presence and workings of Christ in every moment of their day.
“The gospel is deep enough to keep the oldest and wisest parents learning and growing all their lives, yet simple enough to change the heart of the first grader who has just begun to read,” says Machowski. “That’s what makes The Gospel Story Bible ideal as a storybook for a preschooler, a devotional for a grade school student, a refresher for the adult believer or an introduction for the new one. Parents and children will learn together to read the whole Bible as one story, with one hero—Jesus Christ.”
Vibrant illustrations by A. E. Macha, child-friendly discussion questions and Scripture references accompany each story to help lead families in exploring the Bible. Parents and teachers will be delighted to discover how easily even a young child can understand the original text of a story that he or she has already come to love. A companion to the family devotional Long Story Short: Ten-Minute Devotions to Draw Your Family to God and the soon-to-be-released Gospel Story Sunday school curriculum (February 2012), The Gospel Story Bible is also a great resource for churches, Sunday school classes, home-schoolers and Christian schools who want to teach their children to apply the gospel to every situation and make Jesus the most important part of their everyday lives.
Product Details:
- List Price: $29.99
- Hardcover: 328 pages
- Publisher: New Growth Press (December 5, 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1936768127
- ISBN-13: 978-1936768127
AND NOW…Some Sample Pages (click images to see them larger):
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