Parents: Buy This Book. Read it. Love it.

Simone (age 5) and I just finished The Jesus Story Book Bible by Sally Llody-Jones.

We both highly recommend it.

Although there are plenty of picture Bibles on the market, this one has some unique differences. For one thing, what sets this Bible apart is the theology contained therein. Young children may not be able to pick up on the differences between this book and the others out there, but I sure did.

The Jesus Story Book Bible tells many of the same stories (Adam and Eve, Noah, Jonah etc.) as many kids' books do, but the difference is that it does not attempt to make every story into a little moral "lesson." Hang with me here...

"Be good, not bad!" That seems to be as deep as most children's Bibles go.

Be obedient, or else you too will get eaten by a big fish like Jonah! Daniel was obedient, so the lions didn't eat him. You better be obedient too! But is that the main point of Scripture?

Sure, the Scriptures contain morality and ethics. Much of our Bible (the real one that is) contains the Law of God. There is Law in both testaments. Nothing wrong with that. Psalm 119 tells us the Law is glorious and good. It rebukes and corrects us. Points our our flaws. But is that the main idea of Scripture? Surely we must go further than that to get to the heart of the Gospel.

Where Lloyd-Jones excels is in showing how much of the Old Testament foreshadows the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, she does well to show how the Bible is one running story of redemption history (seminary term!) In that sense, the point of the book is to show how the entire Bible is really all about Jesus: Him coming, His sacrifice, His Lordship. Here, Llody-Jones gets it exactly right. Rather than showing a series of unrelated tales on "be good, not bad!" this book is truly about the main idea--Jesus came to redeem a people that COULD not be good!

Rather than viewing the Old Testament as a string of "fables" in which we need to seek "the moral of the story" she views the entire OT as preparing a way for the Messiah. This is, of course, how Jesus HIMSELF interpreted the OT. (See for instance Jesus' summary of OT teaching in Luke 24:27 and 24:44-49).

By the time Sally Lloyd-Jones gets to the New Testament, eager young ears are waiting to hear about how God's great promises are fulfilled--and we get a hearty dose of the Gospel in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

The illustrations by "Jago" are also outstanding. (They must be for a person who goes by only one name! If you are going to go by one name only, you better be excellent. Ask Pele).

Also, some Reformed readers won't like the depictions of Jesus. Theologically, I'm still a bit uneasy about that one myself too. (See Larger Catechism #109). We can debate whether any of the persons of the Trinity can be pictured at another time.

Nevertheless, this daddy (also a pastor) nearly got chocked up as the author and illustrator together combined to put on a brilliant picto-graphic portrayal of Christ's love throughout the whole work. I know you and your children will love it for a lifetime too.

-Matthew Everhard is the Senior Pastor of Faith Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Brooksville Florida. 

Dads: Our Prayers Count Double (Here's Why)

This morning on the way to school, we pulled into the parking lot and began our regular moment of brief prayer for the school day. As we waited in line for the serpentine parade of vehicles to inch closer to the school doors, Simone, my four-year-old daughter, led us aloud. As she prayed, I was struck with a startling epiphany.

She had used almost identically the same words I had the previous morning. 

It wasn't so much the content of the prayer that struck me, it was the imitable style. "Thank you for the cross. Bless mommy at home, daddy at church, and Soriah, Elijah, and me in school." I had said almost the exact same thing 24 hours ago.

When I say that the prayers of fathers "count double," I don't mean that they are twice as powerful. That would be silly. Certainly unbiblical. What I mean is that we are also teaching our children the very language of prayer as we speak. 

The implications for this are huge. I will name just three.

1) First, if we pray God-exalting prayers, our children will learn to exalt Him as well. Lifting up the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, magnifying the empowering work of the Holy Spirit, and making much of the glory of the Father will provide a model of praise that is not soon forgotten. Imagine what an entire childhood--filled with daddy's gospel-soaked prayers--would do to a child's prayer life over time!

Dads, if we can model a trajectory of prayer that intentionally exalts God as our supreme joy, our children will learn to regard Him so highly as well. Unfortunately...

2) The opposite of that is also true: selfish models of prayer beget selfish people. Let's be careful here. Of course we should teach our children to ask of God His provision for our lives (Matt 6:11, 7:7-11). The Bible commands us to do that.

But if children learn from daddy's prayers that the whole point (the highest end) of intercession is to make requests, our children will begin to subconsciously adopt the "Divine Butler" theology of God. They will see a God that primarily exists, as John Piper has written cuttingly elsewhere, "to fluff the pillows and adjust the thermostat." Studies in religious experience are showing exactly that: moral therapeutic deism (MTD) is the fastest growing "religion" today.

3) Finally, dads in particular have a crucial role in the spiritual development of our children. Some readers may wonder why I chose to focus this brief piece on fathers in particular and not parents in general. Surely it is true that mommy's prayers are also exemplary. I am not denying this. They are. Nevertheless, fathers have been given a primacy in the family that many (most?) in our age have abdicated entirely. Would not our families be stronger if dad resumed his role as spiritual "head"of household instead of the spiritual "tail" dragging reluctantly behind?

I think the implications are clear. If dad prays without any notable unction--or worse, fails to lead his family in prayer at all--his example will leave a gaping hole in the Christian family.

--Matthew Everhard is the Senior Pastor of Faith Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Brooksville, FL.

Simone's Surprise, Early Conversion, and Children of the Covenant

My daughter Simone professed faith in Jesus today. She's only three. Is that possible?

(For an adorable video, click here).

Simone didn't "come forward" after church, or raise her hand at a gospel invitation (Every head down and every eye closed!) What happened is that she walked into my bedroom unprompted on an unremarkable  Monday--completely unexpectedly--and announced to me that she "was ready to be a Christian now" (her words).

But I think there is more to the story.

For weeks at our dinner time devotions, we have been talking about what it means to be a Christian. We've been studying the stories in the Gospel of Matthew along with our church reading track. Simone knew full well both her mommy and daddy are Christians. She knew her brother and sister are too.

She also knows that sin (we don't call it 'mistakes' in our family) is rebellion against the Law of God. She had been told that becoming a Christian required repentance and faith (two sides of the same coin: repentance is turning away from sin and faith is turning to Christ).

To be honest, I had been avoiding repeat-after-me-style "Sinner's Prayers" with Simone because I wanted to avoid the error of her growing up believing she had to get saved every other weekend. Instead, I have been praying for a legitimate movement of the Holy Spirit to work in her preschool-sized heart. So, we focused our family Bible times on simple concepts: the Law (including the fifth commandment!), the Cross (Jesus took away our sins there), and faith (trusting in Jesus as our King).

Finally today, it all clicked. I think. I hope. I'm pretty sure.

Of course she could have made her announcement just to please her parents, as some will probably point out. That motivation in and of itself wouldn't be entirely wrong, though. Pleasing our parents (honoring them in the language of the second table of the Law) is of course central to the life of a three-year old.

The fact that she is only three does gives me some pause. Could she really understand substitutionary atonement? Total depravity? Grace? Probably not in the way that a systematic theologian should. For that matter, as an ordained pastor, I'm still learning too. The Lord Himself will alone determine the authenticity of any of our professions of faith, whether we are 3 or 93. 

But all of this makes me both grateful and burdened for the opportunity of raising "covenant children."

Children of the Covenant--that's what we in the Reformed tradition call them--those kids who are raised in Bible-reading, Sabbath keeping, Christ-honoring, Church-serving homes. Do these small persons need to legitimately repent of their sins and express true faith? Yes. Must they be born again to see the Kingdom of God? Certainly. Is it possible that this could even happen at a young age. I don't see any reason why not.

When a child is raised in the covenant from birth, baptized with the sign of water and regarded as a legitimate member of the covenant community--with all the duties and privileges incumbent upon them from an early age--no wonder it sinks in at some point and they "get it." That's the way it is supposed to be. All glory to the Triune God.

Yes, it is astounding when a drug addict turns to Christ, or a gang member repents and turns to faith in Jesus, or a death-row inmate gives a stunning and shocking testimony of God's saving grace.

But one of the best testimonies of all is this one, "I was raised in the faith."


Matthew Everhard is the Senior Pastor of Faith Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Brooksville Florida.