Archive for July 4, 2013


Jul 4

Leading our Children in the Gospel Story (Book Nook Feature)

2013 | by Trent Hunter | Category: Gospel

With VBS around the corner (July 15-19), this is a good month to highlight a few of our favorite resources for children at the Book Nook.

Here are three resources we’ve grown to love at DSC, along with their publisher descriptions, each of them written by Marty Machowski and published by New Growth Press.

The Gospel Story Bible: Discovering Jesus in the Old and New Testaments

Can a Bedtime Story Actually Change Your Life?

It is easy to forget Jesus in the midst of frantic schedules, family squabbles, and conflicting priorities. But the truth is that he is the hero of every story, including these ordinary ones. This is why Marty Machowski puts God’s plan of salvation in Christ on continuous display in The Gospel Story Bible. The easy-to-read storybook introduces your family to many captivating people, places, and events from the Bible’s Old and New Testaments, showing how each one ultimately points to Jesus.

As you share these Bible stories together, you and your family will meet Jesus and learn a new, life-changing way of recognizing Christ as the hero of every story. Vibrant illustrations by A. E. Macha, child-friendly discussion questions, and Scripture references accompany each narrative to help you lead your family in exploring the Bible. You 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.

Long Story Short: Ten-Minute Devotions to Draw Your Family to God

Christian parents know the importance of passing the gospel story on to their children, yet we live in a busy world filled with distractions. Schedules collide, there is homework and yard work and dishes and laundry, the car’s oil should be changed, there are phone calls to make and before you know it, everyone is getting to bed late again.

The Bible can seem like a long story for an active family to read, but when you break it down into short sections, as Marty Machowski does, family devotions are easy to do. Long Story Short will help busy parents share with their children how every story in the Old Testament points forward to God’s story of salvation through Jesus Christ. You won’t find a more important focus for a family devotional than a daily highlighting of the gospel of grace. Clever stories and good moral lessons may entertain and even help children, but the gospel will transform children. The gospel is deep enough to keep the oldest and wisest parents learning and growing all their lives, yet simple enough to transform the heart of the first grader who has just begun to read.

Old Story New: Ten-Minute Devotions to Draw Your Family to God

Filled with adventure, suspense, drama, and mystery the gospel story easily captures the attention of children. Even better, the gospel story give life. We are saved and our children are saved as we review the story of the gospel. So why do so many well-intentioned parents give up on family devotions—deciding that reading the Bible as a family must only be for “super parents.”

The truth is that there are no super parents. We all struggle, and we all need help to stay on course. Old Story New makes it easy for parents to stay on the life-giving course of sharing the gospel with their family. The second volume in Marty Machowski’s family devotional series, Old Story New continues the gospel story that started in Long Story Short. Using the same effective ten-minute a day structure, it walks children through the great truths of the Christian faith in the New Testament. Through 78 New Testament stories, Old Story New does the hard work for parents and caregivers. Simple discussion questions (and answers!) for each day’s devotion help children understand and remember Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and the birth of the Christian church. Old Story New is a family devotional program designed to explain God’s plan of salvation through the New Testament and is suitable for children from preschool through high school.

Each of these books is available at the Book Nook on Sunday morning or through Amazon at the links above.

And don’t forget that VBS is just around the corder, from July 15-19. VBS will involve around 150 volunteers and minister the gospel to several hundred children from our church and, we pray, around the neighborhood. To learn more, or to register your child, click here.