Talking with Your Kids about Jesus: Great conversations starters

As parents, we have choices. We can choose to teach our kids the things that we want them to know, the things that align with our core values, or we can abdicate that responsibility and leave it up to the public school system, their friends on the playground, social media and the mainstream media, or ‘the world’ to have a major say in what they learn and adopt as their core values.  We have a choice: we help influence what will become their worldview, or we let the world play a major role in their decision making processes.

                And like it or not, their view of God and Jesus is going to be included. So the title of Natasha Crain’s book Talking with Your Kids about Jesus: 30 Conversations Every Christian Parent Must Have (Baker Books, 2020) struck a chord.

This book contains 30 short chapters with discussion questions, and prompts for open discussions with your kids about Jesus. Who was He? Who is He? What about the miracles? How could He be human and God at the same time? What did He teach about Heaven, Hell, religion and the Kingdom of God?  What is it about His death that has fascinated scholars for 20 centuries?  Why can we believe that the resurrection happened? And what does it all mean? What is it about Jesus that truly makes a difference when it comes to our lives on earth, our lives in the Kingdom, and how does Jesus fit into the story of our salvation?

Although this book is meant to be a guide to help parents talk with their kids about Jesus, it could easily be adapted into a study for new believers, regardless of their age, they have many of these same questions.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher as a member of their bloggers’ program. I was not required to post a positive review.

4/5

Younique is not really unique

I was looking forward to reading Younique: Designing the Life that God Dreamed for You by Will Mancini (with Dave Rhodes and Cory Hartman) (B&H Publishing, 2020) because it looked like it might be a tool to help me decide how to spend my golden years. I’m retired, but not so tired that I’m ready to spend my days in a rocking chair on the porch, watching life pass by.  There is definitely a part of me that wants to make a difference in the time that I have left, and since its God that gives me that time, I want my life to honor Him.

I was hoping for something new, but I didn’t really find it. This is another book with good information about mission, vision, purpose, and goals. Much of the same stuff that I’ve read in a number of other books over the past 40 or so years. Yes Mancini presents it a little differently, but I found his plan burdensome and overly complicated.

In many ways it seemed as I was reading Younique that this was a management book with some scripture and biblical principles thrown in to offer a fresh appeal to ministry leaders. Although I didn’t check out the links that offered additional information on several things mentioned, I got the impression that to get the full benefit of Mancini’s plan for designing a new life, that I might need to purchase a membership, or buy additional materials.

In short, this book is not for me, and I would hesitate to broadly recommend it, although I can think of one or two people who would probably be willing to give it a try.

                I received a copy of this book from the publisher as a part of a blogging program, I was not required to write a positive review.

                3/5

the Sacred Chase

We hear a lot about having an intimate relationship with God.  We hear about it, and want it for ourselves, but often it seems like we’re stumbling in the dark, waiting for the electricity to come back on so that we can see where we’re going. We’re close, and want to be closer, but we don’t know where to go next, and how to reach the destination.  I wish I could say that this book offers a road map, and one that is much more accurate than anything Google Maps, MapQuest, or your GPS device has to offer.  But I can’t—for one thing that journey is an individual one, and we each have to find our own route, and secondly, I never got the impression that providing a detailed road map was the ultimate objective. 

                What the reader will find in The Sacred Chase: Moving from Proximity to Intimacy with God (Heath Adamson, Baker Books, 2020) is something much more valuable: a sense of what is available once the destination is reached, and the necessary encouragement to motivate you to set out on the journey. This is a reminder that there is more, much more, to Christianity than just going through the motions: church on Sunday, maybe a small group or bible study, tithing (or at least regular giving) are all good things, but without the relationship with Jesus, it doesn’t mean a lot—if anything.

                Adamson uses many familiar passages from scripture and illustrates them with stories from his own faith walk. I’ve never met the author, and I’m sure he was writing about himself, someone he knows personally, or about people in general, but I felt that he could have been writing about me:

“We become discouraged when our religious experience does not line up with God’s

good heart. Lacking identity, we develop a version of who we pretend to be, and we put

on a show at work, in front of our spouse, at the gym, on the golf course, at church, or in

the coffee shop. We are just terrified that people won’t like who we really are. in our pretension, we can even forget the truth ourselves. We can perform for the approval of others until we are unaware it is a performance.”

               

                Just being close to God isn’t always enough, we want to be next to Him.  It’s not too late to set out on your own journey from proximity to intimacy.

                The biographical info on the back cover says that the authors life was ‘changed dramatically when… he was rescued from a life steeped in drug abuse and the occult.  I enjoy that type of conversion story, so I was disappointed that some of those experiences weren’t included in this book.

                 I received a copy of this book as a member of the publisher’s bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review.

4/5