God's Message for Children

We seem to go through children's Bibles fairly quickly around here.  By reading a story a day (pretty much) we tend to read two or more children's storybook Bibles each year since they typically don't have too many stories in them.  We recently finished Mighty Acts of God: Family Bible Story Book.  (Linked to our review.)  Some families with five year old children are purposeful in reading from an unabridged (as in adult-style) Bible.  I think that will be our next step, but for now we typically read to our 3 and 5 year old kids at the same time, so we we find that storybook-style Bibles are still appropriate for us.


With the new year I'm excited to read God's Message for Children with our Big Kids.  It has a story for every day of the year.  Each day's reading and illustration fits on a page. I like that each day's story is not only dated, but also tells where the the book of the Bible and chapter(s) where the story is found.  (Actually, I think the Bible reference should be standard in story book Bibles, but it is not.)  An actual focus verse is also included and a summary/application at the end.  Then the story is told in language that is easy to understand, but from what I've read, it does not seem overly "dumbed down".

With a whole year (February 29th included) of Bible reading, many of the stories are told in pretty good detail over several days.  I do find that for a Bible I prefer the realistic illustrations in The Classic Bible Storybook, linked to review.  One of the things I like most is that some stories that are often not well-known to children can be read in this Bible, including several entries for Revelation.  Below are a few titles of some of the readings.  (Only the first word is capitalized in the titles.)

• Korah's rebellion against Moses (Numbers 16)
• An ax floats on the water (2 Kings 2 & 6)
• We shouldn't be afraid of the devil (Matthew 8)
• Judas dies (Matthew 27)
• Jesus sends us a special Helper (John 16)
• Everyone before God (Revelation 20)

Overall, we like God's Message for Children as a Bible for our family.  I think it will introduce new parts of the Bible for our children to learn about and discuss.  It does cost a bit more than the average children's storybook Bible, but it will be used for a full year.  The illustrations are cute, cartoon style.  You can read some selections at Amazon to get a good feel for this Bible to see if it is a good fit for your family.

Thank you, Kregel Publishers for providing this Bible for review purposes.