The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name: 1

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Wherever I am, God is going to be there. And I will be given what I need from Him to meet the challenges of a place. And all I need to do is stay in the day and do what God has given me to do on that particular day and have joy in that.” - Melanie Penn The theme of the terrible lie [of sin]—which has everything to do with ‘we don’t need to be saved’ or ‘I can save myself’—was carried pretty well,” he said. The book shows “plenty of consequence to sin, plenty to build on as you take your kiddo through other resources.”

complete printable lessons with teaching notes based on material from Timothy Keller, memory verses, and four-color children’s handouts with take-home notes But sharing a faith – showing how much it means to you, living it, spending time with it and spending time with your children opens a door and invites a child to enter and discover what you’ve already found. The same is true of reading. If you open the door, show the joys and adventures inside, children will be eager to enter and make new discoveries for themselves. One of Lloyd-Jones’s best-known lines from the book is the repeateddescription of God’s“never ending, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love.” Lloyd-Jones tells us at the beginning of the book that the story of the Bible is a story that could have ended abruptly with the Fall, but didn’t, because God loved his children too much to let that happen. She ends with John in exile on Patmos, writing down his vision, struggling to cram all that he saw into one book. So when he came to the end of his book, he didn’t write “The End.” “Because, of course, that’s how stories finish. (And this one’s not over yet) My faith is the work and the work is my faith. I think that—especially for writers or creators—it's very incarnational to make something. So you are kind of peering into the unseen and then bringing something into the world that hopefully gives life to people. And that in and of itself is like the incarnational work of Christ.” - Melanie Penn

In Jeremiah 29:11, God reminds us that He has extraordinary plans for each and every one of us. Often, it can be easy to get anxious when we think about the future and the unknown, but it’s important for us to trust God—His timing and plans are greater than we can imagine. Singer and songwriter Melanie Penn opens up about insecurities she has faced throughout her career and how staying rooted in her faith has always gotten her through the unknown. Now, whenever we're reading someone's thoughts or opinions on something, I think that there's certain questions that we should always ask ourselves, and the first question I think we need to ask ourselves is, what is this person claiming? What is this person claiming is true? So in this case, with this article that you've read about The Jesus Storybook Bible and maybe some problematic theology, is this person claiming that the stories in the book are incorrectly represented, that they don't stay faithful to the biblical narrative? Is this person claiming that the overall focus of the storybook Bible is incorrect, that the author is not correctly translating the themes of the Bible down for little kids? What is the claim that this person is making? What are they saying is the problematic theology? So that's a question I think we can ask ourselves in any situation. What is the claim that this person is making?

My whole life I had been waiting for somebody to tell me I was special… It changed everything for me.” - Darnell Ferguson It's actually good that you read the Bible first anyways. Characters like Samuel and Elisha are introduced as if you know who they are already, while other major characters get major spotlights before their story. If the Lord hadn’t been in charge, the book would never have come out. All the pieces had to work together.” Never-Ending LoveYes, above all, it's missing the complete gospel message, sin, redemption through Christ, transformation by the Holy Spirit, glorification.

Having a narrator also let her end each story with a glimpse of what is to come (“I love cliffhangers”). But child psychologist Brent Bounds, who helped Lloyd-Jones write The Jesus Storybook Bible curriculum, disagrees. Naturally I chose Samson, because I thought he would be fun to play. But when I reread the story through the lens of how I would tell it to children, I didn’t know what to leave in and what to take out. Could I tell them about the time I tied the tails of foxes together, set them on fire, and sent them running through the Philistines’ vineyards? Or the time, after spending the night in a brothel, I tore the city gates from their hinges and carried them off? Another thing that I think the Jesus story Book Bible does well is I think that they've done a good job of pulling out key narratives in the text. Anytime someone is writing a children's Bible, they cannot include every single narrative in scripture nor every single portion of scripture. And I think that the author of The Jesus Storybook Bible, I believe it's Sally Lloyd Jones, I think she's done a really great job of identifying what are key narratives that our kids really need to understand if they're to understand the whole story of the Bible. Hello friends, and welcome to another episode of the Foundation Worldview Podcast where we seek to answer your questions so that you can equip the children God has placed in your care to carefully evaluate every idea they encounter and understand the truth of the biblical worldview. I'm your host, Elizabeth Urbanowicz, and I'm thrilled that you've joined me for another episode today. Today's question says, "I recently read some articles about problematic theology in the Jesus Storybook Bible, and I wondered your views on this resource. Thanks." Great question. I know that The Jesus Storybook Bible is a kids' Bible that is in many homes and churches and Christian schools across the country and across the globe. So this is a great question to explore.The Lord was training me theologically and also teaching me to find ways to say things differently,” she said. “I feel such a debt to him and to [Tim’s wife] Kathy.” Jago is an accomplished illustrator with several prestigious awards to his credit, including a Macmillian "Highly Commended" Award for Children's Illustration in 2003, an AOI Silver Award in 2004, and the National Literacy Association Wow! Award. Jago lives in Cornwall with his wife and daughter.

The book is aimed at children younger than 8 years old, but Lloyd-Jones said she began to think the book was going to do really well when “it seemed to be fathers who loved it.” We were overjoyed that someone had taken the theology they heard in Tim’s sermons and produced a work of art,” she said. “People grow through what you’re feeding them, and to see what Tim had been saying processed and incarnated in a children’s book made us so happy. . . . I bought 40 of them and handed them out to anyone who would sit still long enough.”I LOVE to give people The Jesus Storybook Bible because from the very first chapter it paints a powerful picture of God's epic love for each one of us. Sally Lloyd-Jones has a unique way of inviting the reader, young or old, to dive in and discover for themselves the truth and hope of the greatest story ever told.' Amy Grant