New Bible storybooks bring parables of Jesus and Christmas in July

Did you know the ever-popular Arch ® Books for children have been around since 1965? I didn’t! To celebrate their 50th anniversary, Concordia Publishing House released some of these favorite Bible storybooks as the Best-Loved Christmas Stories and the Best-Loved Parables of Jesus, both of which the publisher kindly sent me to review.

Each book contains six of the previously published Arch ® Books in a sturdy, lightly padded hardback cover with the original or revised text and accompanying artwork inside. Each book also offers the work of a variety of talented artists and writers, who present Bible stories from various perspectives.

In the Best-Loved Christmas Stories, for example, “Mary’s Christmas Story” gives her view of that first Christmas while “Joseph’s Christmas Story” gives his. Other stories follow the star, shepherds, and wise men until the last story ends with the special joy and celebration found in the homes of young readers on Christmas morning.

You needn’t wait until Christmas, however, to read this book with your kids or grandchildren! As young children often say, “Tell me about when I was born,” they can readily connect, year-round, with stories about Jesus’ birth too.

Children also relate to the parables of Jesus, which give them a good story to remember even if it takes time for the full meaning to unfold. Most likely, that’s what Jesus expected when He first told the stories to grown-ups, who just didn’t get what He was saying! Maybe the meaning would “suddenly” come to them that night or the next morning or weeks later as they turned the stories over and over in their minds.

With the Best-Loved Parables of Jesus, children can do this too. The colorful artwork and poetic texts will help them to envision and recall “The Wise and Foolish Builders” as well as the Good Samaritan, lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son (aka Prodigal.)

The remaining story of “The Parable of the Talents” illustrates the talent from the Master as gold coins put to good use, but….

But Servant Three made a foolish choice:
He went home and dug a hole!
“I’ll put this deep into the ground
And keep his talent whole.”

After the parable has ended, the story goes on to ask young readers about the special gifts and abilities they have been given before closing with this good word:

Whatever our gifts that Jesus has given
Here’s what He has in store:
When we use our talents to honor Him,
He will bless them and give us more.


© 2014, Mary Harwell Sayler, reviewer, is a traditionally published author of many books in all genres, including poetry and books or prayer.


Best-Loved Christmas Stories, hardback



Best-Loved Parables of Jesus, hardback



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Today’s Light Devotional Bible

As a lifelong lover of the Bible, I’ve read many reader’s editions and many, many study Bibles that helped me to learn a lot about God and God’s Family. Thankfully, that family includes me – and you. However, on the “Welcome” page of Today’s Light Devotional Bible, Jane Fryar reminds us that God is “not so much interested in your learning facts about Him, though that’s certainly part of the process. The holy, all-powerful, infinitely gracious God of the universe wants to reveal Himself to you. To you!”

Isn’t that awesome! Okay, so we live in an era where people call almost everything “awesome,” but God’s Word of love to us truly is!

As I read the review copy of this edition of the English Standard Version (ESV) that Concordia published and kindly sent to me, I wished I'd had it when I first began reading and studying the Bible as a preteen with little clue about what I was reading! Insightful comments by Jane Fryar remedy that situation by providing brief commentaries to help us “Get the Big Picture” then “Sharpen the Focus” for each book and most of the chapters in the Bible.

Those ongoing insights make this edition especially recommended for teens, young adults, and newcomers to the Bible. And, all of us will find a helpful layout throughout the text that correlates with the three checklists at the back of the book meant to guide our choices of a one-year reading plan, a two-year plan, or (what I'd like to try next) a plan to read the Bible chronologically.

But, what about the welcoming word that says the “God of the universe wants to reveal Himself to you”? How does Jane Fryar go about getting this across?

The examples extend beyond the space I have here, but to start at the beginning, “Get the Big Picture” says: “Genesis records many firsts – the first people, the first family, the first sin, the first city, the first musician, and more first besides. Today’s reading [One Year (Week 1, Monday) Genesis 1:1-3:24; Two Year (Week 1, Monday) Genesis 1:1-2:25] zeroes in on the first week of our world’s existence and on the first home God gave His human creatures. As you read, note the care God took as He made this home for us – the first paradise.”

Think about it! God gave everything we needed to live in paradise from the beginning of time, rather than the end. Knowing this about God is good to know, of course, but more importantly, good to ponder and sink into our spirits. Then, as this edition encourages us to do, we, too, can "...see God’s power, creativity, wisdom, and tender concern for His human creatures – His children.” Yes, that’s you; yes, me.


© 2014, Mary Harwell Sayler, reviewer, is a traditionally published author of many books in all genres, including poetry and books of prayer.


Today’s Light Devotional Bible, hardcover



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NIV Life Journey Bible

If you’ve ever read the bestselling book Boundaries, you’ll know why I was glad to get a review copy of the NIV Life Journey Bible from Zondervan. In addition to providing the revised text of the super-bestselling NIV (New International Version) Bible, this edition includes 20 essays and 300 “Insights” by Boundaries authors, Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend. What a combination!

According to our Jewish ancestry, which came to all Christians through Christ, a person’s faith in God involves the body, mind, and spirit. In Luke 10:26-28 and Matthew 22:37, for example, Jesus tells us to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength and all your mind.”

Most of us “get” the spiritual side of believing, the physical side of putting those beliefs into practice, and the mental side of opening our minds to the mind of Christ through prayerful Bible reading. In worship services, we also hear sermons or homilies on spiritual growth and the various ministries requiring our physical presence and, perhaps, a little grease from our elbows.

Many Bible resources have been developed to help us draw closer to God spiritually and materially or tangibly, but articles and notes in this edition help us to draw closer to God mentally too. As explained in the front matter, “The Insights feature will give you an inside track on tips for emotional and relationship health, including where signs of emotional health and maturity, or their absence, occur in various stories, teachings and events found in Scripture.”

When it comes to dealing with problems, the Book of Job has much to say! For example, “God’s Right: Saying No” gives us this “Insight” on Job 2:9-10, where “Job did not ‘make God bad’ in his own mind. In all of his complaining, he did not end his relationship with God. Job didn’t understand God, but he allowed God to be himself. Job never withdrew his love from God, even when he was angry with him. This is a real relationship, and he was rewarded for his faithfulness, honesty and devotion to God, even when God did not do what he (Job) wanted.”

Another “Insight” pertains to “Sharing All Our Feelings With God,” where “Job wanted to fully express his protest to God (see Job 13:3).” However, Christians “often fear being honest with God because it has not been safe to express honesty in our earthly relationships. Like Job we fear both abandonment and retaliation. ...Rest assured, however, that God desires truth….(and) seeks people who will have a real relationship with him.”

Nevertheless, suffering can be expected, and so the “Insight” on Job 42:1-17 addresses “Suffering of Different Kinds,” where, “One is suffering as a result of working on our character, and the other is suffering that happens as a result of being in a fallen world. The key is to be able to tell the difference between the two and apply the right kind of experience to each. Too often in the church those who have been victims of destructive events are told that God is trying to teach them a lesson or that what they are going through is a result of their own sin or a part of the growth process.” But as happened with Job, “In reality, they are innocently suffering.”

Either way, disappointment will most likely occur – in God, in ourselves, or in other people, and so, an essay in this well-done edition offers thoughtful responses to the important question: “How Should We Respond to Disappointment With God?”

We do, of course, have choices as the “Insight” for Revelation 3:20 reminds us saying: “God has no interest in violating our boundaries so that he can relate to us. He wants us to love him freely, not because he controls us into it…. Intimacy with God is based on freedom, as are all good choices.”

When we think of “trespassing” as over-stepping the boundaries, we can choose to trust God not to trespass against us! The more we recognize God as loving, trustworthy, and true, the more we want to remove the obstacles, misunderstandings, and other boundaries between us. This edition can help to show us how.

© 2014, Mary Harwell Sayler is a lifelong student of the Bible, writer in all genres, and poet-author of many books and blogs.


NIV, Life Journey Bible, hardcover





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Psalms and The Wisdom of God

We’ve talked about the Psalms before in The One Year Book of Psalms, a daily devotional from Tyndale, highly recommended for individual use. Recently, Crossway sent me review copies of the Psalms: A 12-Week Study and also The Wisdom of God, a 10-week study which includes 5 weeks on the Psalms. Whether for personal use or group study, I highly recommend both books.

As previously mentioned, studying psalms and wisdom books of the Bible gives an excellent foundation for prayer, poetry, and biblical insights into the people of God, who have turned to these books over the centuries for guidance. More importantly, both books from Crossway show how Psalms provide insight into the mind of Christ as they repeatedly point to Him, prophetically and poetically.

From Crossway’s Knowing the Bible series, Psalms: A 12-Week Study coordinates somewhat with the ESV Study Bible, but any translation you or your Bible study group chooses will, of course, be fine as you proceed numerically through the Psalms.

Beginning with the “Week 1: Overview,” the text offers a helpful outline of the five “books” within the book of Psalms. For instance, Book 1 includes Psalm 1-41, many of which were written by King David where “Prayers issuing from a situation of distress dominate” and are “punctuated by statements of confidence in the God who alone can save.”

In Book 2, Psalms 42-72 present the Korah collection where “Once again, lament and distress dominate the content of these prayers, which now also include a communal voice.” In Book 3, the “tone darkens” as it brings “most of the psalms of Asaph (Psalms 73-83), as well as another set or Korah psalms (Psalm 84-85; 87-88).” However, Book 4 (Psalms 90-106) “may be seen as the first response to the problems raised by the third book.” Then Book 5 (Psalms 107-150) “declares that God does answer prayer (Psalm 107) and concludes with five Hallelujah psalms….”

In addition, a footnote in this Overview tells us “the basic type of psalms can be summarized as laments (presenting a trouble situation to the Lord), hymns of praise (calling believers to admire God’s attributes) and hymns of thanksgiving (thanking God for an answered prayer). There are also hymns celebrating God’s law…, wisdom psalms…, songs of confidence…, historical psalms…, and prophetic hymns (echoing themes found in the Prophets, especially calling God’s people to covenant faithfulness).”

Throughout the study guide, a consistent format considers the setting, glimpses of the Gospel, theological terms, and personal implications with ample room for writing responses in “Reflection and Discussion.” Besides the high quality of information provided, Bible students and discussion groups will appreciate the high quality of the paper, cover, and print in this well-done series.

In the Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament series, previously included in a review of Bible Study Resources, Nancy Guthrie gives us insight in studying The Wisdom of God: Seeing Jesus in the Psalms and Wisdom Books.

As a 10-week study that also includes the books of Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon, five of those weeks focus on the Psalms. Instead of a sequential study, however, the author groups the psalms, not by book, but by divisions of “Psalms: The Songs of Jesus,” “Blessing and Perishing in the Psalms,” “The Royal Psalms,” “Repentance in the Psalms,” and “The Suffering and Glory of Messiah in the Psalms.” The wise insights and personable writing style make you feel as though you’re having a deep conversation with Nancy about the scriptures, but this series works well in group study too.

If you’re as interested in the psalms and wisdom books of the Bible as I am, you might decide to do what I did: Soak up both of these excellent resources from Crossway.

© 2014, Mary Harwell Sayler, reviewer, is a lifelong lover of the Bible, writer in all genres, and poet-author of many books.


Psalms: A 12-Week Study from the Knowing the Bible series, paperback



The Wisdom of God (A 10-week Bible Study): Seeing Jesus in the Psalms and Wisdom Book, paperback



Outside Eden,paperback


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