My First Handy Bible

Book Review

I often complain about the lack of aesthetics in most churches and ministries today. Once upon a time art in the church was all about giving God the best, not “our best” but “the best”, whether we’re talking about music, art, or even the Sunday morning bulletin.  It’s all a matter of how we view God. 

Is He worthy of the best? 

Let me ask this: if the president was coming to visit our church, would we settle for what we do every week, or would we try to up the ante and maybe hire in some professionals to give him an experience that’s worthy of his visit. 

How much more for the King of Hosts?

Is it any wonder that so many find the world more attractive?  At least they seem to care about and believe in what they’re doing enough to spend some effort and money on it.

This may seem like a strange rant to walk down for a review of a Children’s Bible, but often times I see Christian publishers doing the same thing: just throwing together some half-baked artwork for their cover, and crummy stories that took probably all of ten hours to write, draw, and color for children’s books.  

And then I there’s the Handy Bible. 

The book itself isn’t all that impressive.  Its gimmick is a cheap plastic handle and a cheap plastic latch that keeps it closed.  Imagine a tiny briefcase.  But inside . . . inside it’s amazing!

They hired professional cartoon artist Gustavo Mazali to illustrate the Bible stories, and the scenes and imagery are just gorgeous.  I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I was about the artwork.  He has a style similar to Sam Butcher’s Precious Moments, and if you were just thinking about the commercialized version of his work, I’d encourage you to check out the Precious Moments Chapel and some of his finer paintings.  I think Mazali is much better at expression than Butcher was though.

My son loved the stories too, though at three, he wasn’t as excited about the professional quality of the art.  Someday he will be.  I learned to draw by copying out of a picture Bible, and maybe he will too.

At any rate, I highly recommend this book, but also all the other selections from Scandanavia Publishing with illustrations by Gustavo Mazali.

Buy the book for $11.01

About the Book

As soon as they can talk, most little ones begin asking for a Bible to hold in their very own hands. Now, from Denmark to America, comes My First Handy Bible (Scandinavia Publishing) for babies and toddlers, with all the best stories from Genesis to Revelation. Young children delight in carrying around the compact and colorful Bible—taking it to church, “playing” church or cuddling up in a lap to have it read to them. My First Handy Bible has huge appeal for parents, grandparents, teachers and children’s ministry leaders, but especially for the kids!

Miracles

What exactly is a miracle?  If you’re a Bible believing Christian, that’s probably not a question you’ve asked.  If you’re a skeptic, you’ve probably wouldn’t even waste much time pondering that question and dismiss it with a remark about ignorant people.  Yet miracles are part of the universal human experience.  There is no culture on Earth that doesn’t believe in miracles of some kind.

Tim Stafford is a senior writer for Christianity Today and has spent twenty-something years traveling the world and hearing accounts of miracles, which are the topic of his new book aptly titled: Miracles.

He admits that as a reformed Presbyterian, he didn’t have much faith in miracles and mostly leaned toward the position that God had gotten out of using people in His miracle working business after He finished his epic memoirs aka the Bible. (My words not his.)

But when a young man that he knew from his Presbyterian church, who had been bound to a wheelchair, went to a healing service at a more charismatic church and walked away from it pushing his wheelchair in front of him, Mr. Stafford decided to start digging a little deeper.

He found two things: there’s a lot of hyped-up, exaggerated miracles that people just want to believe but probably aren’t even close to true, but there are also real documented miracles happening all over the world.  He gives one example of watching Muslims come to Christ in Mozambique because a deaf man is healed in His name.

What is the thing that separates the real from the hype?  Well, the real are much rarer, usually important to an individual and those who know him/her, they’re life-changing for everyone involved, and most importantly God uses these “signs” as just that--signs that point to Him.

I have to say that I loved this book.

I’ve seen miracles first hand.  When my son was born, my wife went blind from complications because her blood started to clot and hemorrhage and damaged the tissue in her eyes, as well as other organs throughout her body.  It wasn’t certain whether she would live or die, but according to the doctors and the counselors that visited during that time, if she made it, her sight would be impaired for life.

I remember making videos of our son for her with the dim hope that God would heal her someday, and I wanted her to be able to see her son’s face when he was born. I also remember writing about healing during this time in the post Healing and God’s Heart.

People all around the world were praying for her recovery, and our boy was a month and half old when his mom was stable enough to come home from the hospital.  I can’t point to a specific moment when she got her sight back, but the next time we went to the doctor, she had 20/20 vision.

This is one of those examples Stafford would point to as hard to verify.  The medical records show that she was blind and got her sight back, but they chalk it up to the body healing itself.  They can’t explain how it healed itself, but it did.  It happens all the time.  Of course, that’s a skeptic’s response.  I don’t know how it happened, but it wasn’t a miracle because miracles don’t happen.

On the other hand, I’ve heard lots of people in the more charismatic side of things claim healing, but then a week later, they’re suffering again.  Were they healed or not? I’d say, no, and I think Stafford would too.

However, I think his summation is a good one.  If someone tells you they’ve been healed, hope that they have been and praise God.  Rejoice with those who rejoice.  If someone needs healing, pray that they will be, and mourn with those who mourn.  But don’t get so focused on signs and wonders that you forget whom the signs point to. 

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Show Me How to Share Christ in the Workplace

When I worked for Pulse ministries, we put together a lot of evangelism training events for young people, so I definitely believe that there is a place for training in evangelism.  On the other hand, I also think that it’s the Spirit that leads in any evangelistic opportunity, not training per se: kind of like when the Spirit brings back to remembrance what we’ve read in the Bible when we need it.  We still should read it, but it’s the Spirit that makes it ready for us.

So, I was a little trepid about what Larry Moyer would have to say about how to share Christ in the workplace in his new book.  Would he go the “here’s some step-by-steps route?”  Or would he go the “stand back and let God work route?”

I was relieved to see that the first chapter of the book was all about prayer, continual prayer.  He says, “prayer ought to come from our lips like a dripping faucet” when it comes to the topic of evangelism.  Praying for boldness, opportunity, a strong witness, and even the words to say.”

Later he confronts a lot of the crazy evangelism techniques that are out there like “just letting my life be the witness, so I don’t have to say anything” and “a prayer is all it takes to be saved,” which are big plusses.

He also makes sure to emphasize that it’s Christ alone that saves, not works, not baptism, not anything else, while still maintaining that when we come to Christ the evidence is that we are saved from sin, and our lives change.

There wasn’t a whole lot to critique negatively in the book.  And I highly recommend it to anyone looking for some solid evangelism training material for the work place.  And since according to recent pew studies, only 1% of so-called evangelical Christians actually evangelize, I think a lot of us need something like this to wake us up.

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I received this book from the publisher for review.  All opinions are my own.

S.E.E.D.S Music Video: Design Post

A while back I posted about a Christian Rapper named Canvas that I though had real talent and had pure Gospel in his lyrics.  I had the privilege of working with him for the past few weeks filming a video for the title track S.E.E.D.S.   It was a lot of fun, not just shooting the video, but also sitting around talking about Jesus with him.

At any rate, the video is included below:

Mondays With My Old Pastor

When I picked up Mondays With My Old Pastor, I was afraid it might be just another sentimental reflective book. But the preface—and the entire book—captured me with its’ stunning allegory, parables, and tangible storytelling.

The book starts with a discouraged young pastor whose wife suggests he visit his “old pastor”—a term of endearment for the man who trained him as a young man. What follows is a tightly-knit story about passing the mantle, filled with refreshingly new stories and parables to illustrate the point.

This book has intentional structure, where each chapter is a visit, and is represented by a new rose that grows in the old pastor’s garden. With each rose is a chance to pray and reflect after the visit—for the reader as well as for the leading character. In this way, the structure and literary devices prepare the reader for worshipful moments and meditation.

José Luis Navajo is no stranger to good storytelling, and it certainly offers ample illustrations that could be used for sermons or teaching. The story moves at a good pace, and I always felt that the “meetings” ended too quickly, wanting to hear more instead of feeling lectured.

I highly recommend this book, without reservations. I already have a list of people who would like to read it after me. It is both interesting and encouraging. I hope you will have the pleasure of reading it as well.

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I received this book from the publisher for review. All opinions are my own.