“Baby Bible Board Books (Collection #1)” by Edward & Sarah Bolme

~ Bob Hayton ~ 1 Comment

Authors: Edward & Sarah Bolme (Illustrated by Tim Gillette)
Format: Child’s Board Book
Page Count: 20/per book
Publisher: Crest Publications
Publication Date: 2003
ISBN: 0972554645
Rating: 5 of 5 stars

This collection of children’s bible story board books is absolutely charming. The pictures are bright and cute. The stories are simple and on a young child’s level. The book proves durable and is easy for little fingers to hold. Best of all, the Bible stories are told in a simple yet very relevant way.

As the father of four little girls (the oldest is in Kindergarten), I’ve seen many a Christian themed kid’s book. Many of them bend the Biblical text too much for my tastes. Some water down the message to the point I can’t share them with my children. These books, written by Edward and Sarah Bolme, not only pass my parental eye, but they are treasured by my girls as well. (I can’t keep them on my desk to review, without my girls taking them back and using them!)

Each book focuses on a specific Bible story, and includes the specific Biblical reference on the back cover. With just a few words per page, each story is told at a child’s level. The pictures include cute pets or other kid-friendly embellishments, but the story stays true to the text. What’s best with these stories is how the last page applies the story’s lesson to the child’s experience. These are not moral lessons about how to act, rather teach about who God is and how we can trust Him in our lives. A Bible verse is included with the application as well.

The four books cover the following stories. Jesus Stops a Storm — which means Jesus keeps us safe, as well. Jesus Heals a Little Girl — so Jesus makes us well, too. Jesus Helps a Blind Man — and He takes good care of us. And then Jesus Feeds the People — even as God gives us good food, too. These applications are at a child’s level, and there is ample opportunity to add additional teaching as you read the book with your child.

The artwork is professional, and very attractive to children ages 1-3 (whom the books are geared toward) and even older. I really can’t rate these books high enough.

Disclaimer: This book was provided by the publisher. The reviewer was under no obligation to offer a positive review.

This book is available for purchase at the following sites: Amazon.com or direct from Crest Publications.

Why Not to Visit Israel

~ fundyreformed ~ 22 Comments

Every decent Christian longs to go to the Holy Land.   They would love an opportunity to see the places where Biblical events happened, touch places Jesus may have touched, see where the Temple stood and where the empty tomb may have been.   Right?   Isn’t that true?

Well, I agree with John Piper.   I don’t really want to go to the Holy Land.   I don’t feel I need to.   This past Sunday, in Pastor Piper’s message, he declared that he’s never been to Israel, and he doesn’t want to go.   He even asked the church not to send him.   His sermon is available here, but Junior transcribed the part about Israel.   I’ll post his transcription here, and then the edited version in the print copy of his sermon.

Jesus is where we meet God. If you want to say, “Where on the planet today is a holy place that I can do a pilgrimage and be in the house of God?” Answer, “Jesus!” You want to go to a holy place on the planet? Stand still and come to Jesus. There aren’t any holy sites in the Christian religion. Zero. I’ve never gone to Israel mainly for that reason. Please, when I’m here 30 years don’t give me a free trip to Israel – fix my car. I got no problem with you going to Israel. I don’t want any emails. There’s just no more Jesus in Israel than there is in your pew right now.   [Actual quote]

Now Jesus is the new Beth-el. He is the place where God is present. Heaven has opened, and Jesus has appeared. And from now on, Jesus will be the place where God appears most clearly among men, and where men find their way into fellowship with God. There are no holy geographic places any more designated by God as his meeting place with man. Jesus is that meeting place.   [Edited revision of this part]

The reason pastor Piper says these things is that the Bible doesn’t teach that Israel is some special holy land that believers should long for.   No Israel–the land–pointed to a greater reality, that of spiritual fellowship with God.   We don’t need to go anywhere to be closer to Jesus, we are members of His Body.   We don’t need to look for a future Temple, we are the reconstituted Temple.

For more on this idea, I’d encourage you to check out my series of posts on Understanding the Land Promise.

Reading, Writing and The Internet

~ Bob Hayton ~ 2 Comments

Recently, I was discussing how blogging and book-reading complement each other. I find I read more theological books as a result of my blogging than I might otherwise. Yet blogging does eat up time and keep me from reading as much as I’d like. It’s more than just time, however. Blogging gives me bits and pieces of info which fascinate me and substitute the place of reading to some degree.

It’s not just blogging. All things internet promote a piecemeal view of the world. News and information, on the run, in bite size pieces. Immediate access. Unending links to yet more and more and more. The daily presence and impact of the internet on the majority of today’s culture, myself included, is shaping how we think and how we read.

In college, I was required to read Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death. In that book he argued that the various technological media of our day and any other, impact what and how we think far more than we realize. He showed how the printing press revolutionized the world, just as had the alphabet before it, and now the TV (and nightly news) after it. I think Neil’s work should be updated to include the internet’s influence. It will be interesting to see how dramatically it will shape our thinking and culture.

My thoughts here were spurred on by stumbling across an interesting article entitled “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” [HT: Stephen Altrogge]. Nicholas Carr, who recently published a book on this topic, does a good job of explaining the problem in this column (published in The Atlantic). It’s definitely worth your time to read it all the way through (without skimming, mind you…).

I’m not so sure the internet’s influence is a huge problem, but I think we should all be aware as to just how much our reading habits are influenced by our internet usage. This makes me even more satisfied with my new focus on reading and reviewing more books on my blog. This will help my blog serve my aim to read more books. I hope you’ll join me in reading more books, because Christians after all, are people of The Book. It follows we need to preserve the art of reading and thinking (and even writing), since God communicated to us not in a movie, or a drama, not on the internet or a magazine, but through books, 66 of them.

Christmas Gift Idea

~ fundyreformed ~ 2 Comments

How would you like to support missions with one of your Christmas gift choices? My grandfather is marketing a special hand-crafted wood paddle, proceeds of which benefit the Dorcas Fund–a fund to help widows and orphans in Zambia, Africa.

The paddle has an inspirational message: “Up a creek without a paddle? Seek me.   ~God.” The paddles are going for $22 each (includes shipping), now through December 15th.

You can see more pictures of the paddle and get full details here.

4000, 560, and 3

~ fundyreformed ~ 8 Comments

Warning, this is a self-serving, post. Read at your own risk…

I just realized I recently went over the 4,000 comments mark. My review of O. Palmer Robertson’s The Israel of God, created a pingback on one of my older posts back on 11/10 and that was #4,000. Then, on 11/13, David Kjos, the Thirsty Theologian, started the fifth milleniad of comments around here. I hit the 2,000 comment mark back in August of 2007, so the second 2,000 comments came in much quicker than the first.

This is also my 560th post, and this last month marked the completion of three full years of blogging. My actual blogiversary is 10/9; but I only added one more post that month, and two in November 2005. I really didn’t start blogging until December 2005, and today is the anniversary of the posting of “My Story”. That post now has 105 comments.

I’d been meaning to blog about my 3rd blogiversary, so today’s a good day to do that, especially since Jamsco mentioned today was his 501st post. (He’s gonna catch me for sure).

All of this just to say “I’m three!” No, the blog’s three, me, well…..