Best-selling children’s author Marty Machowski’s beautifully illustrated storybook captivates young readers with the heart of the gospel. In this easy-to-read children’s book, families are invited to see Jesus clearly in the people, places, and events of the Old and New Testaments.
The Gospel Story Bible points to Jesus, helping families and kids identify Christ as the hero of every story. While it’s easy to forget Jesus in the midst of frantic schedules, family squabbles, and conflicting priorities, Machowski reminds families of God’s plan of salvation in Christ, which is continually on display throughout the Bible.
This gospel-driven resource orients the minds of children toward the wondrous works of God, encouraging them to see Jesus in a larger context of redemptive history. As a treasure for both parents and young children, The Gospel Story Bible traces the gospel through the Bible with clarity and traction for all ages.
As you share these engaging Bible stories together, you and your family will meet Jesus and learn a new, life-changing way of growing in intimacy with him. Vibrant illustrations, child-friendly discussion questions, and Scripture references accompany each narrative to help you lead in effective family Bible study.
You will be delighted to discover how easily even a young child can understand the original text of a story he or she has already come to love. Ideal as a storybook for your preschooler, a devotional for your grade school student, a refresher for the adult believer, or an introduction for the new one.
The Gospel Story Bible is a companion resource to the Gospel Story Curriculum, Long Story Short, Old Story New, the Old Testament Gospel Story for Kids Coloring Book, and the New Testament Gospel Story for Kids Coloring Book. Each bible story corresponds to a lesson in the Gospel Story Curriculum, a coloring page in the coloring books, and a week of devotions in Long Story Short and Old Story New.
AUTHOR
Marty Machowski is a Family Life Pastor at Covenant Fellowship Church in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, where he has served on the pastoral staff for over thirty years. He is the author of The Gospel Story Bible, Long Story Short, Old Story New, the Gospel Story Curriculum, the Prepare Him Room advent devotional and curriculum, Wise Up family devotional and curriculum, Listen Up family devotional and curriculum, Dragon Seed, and The Ology. He and his wife Lois have six children and two grandchildren, and they reside in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
"I could speak at length about how much I recommend Marty Machowski's books to churches—and indeed I do, along with books from a long list of other authors. But Marty's resources for families and children also appear on a far shorter list that places them in a more significant category for me—they are books that I actually use in my home. Again, Marty has provided us with a God-centered, Scripture-grounded, gospel-driven resource that orients the minds of children toward the wondrous works of God."
Timothy Paul Jones, PhD, Associate Professor of Family Ministry, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; editor of The Journal of Family Ministry
"Marty Machowski gets the gospel and knows how to transfer it to kids in a way that delights the soul and engages the mind. The Gospel Story Bible is a treasure for parents of young children. But it's not just for children, Marty traces the gospel through the Bible with crystal clarity and traction for all ages. Few pastors I know are this skilled in making the glories of Scripture so accessible in narrative form. It's a must-buy."
Dave Harvey, DMin, author of When Sinners Say "I Do" and Rescuing Ambition
"Machowksi does a great job of keeping the essential details of the stories intact while keeping the language accessible. This is no easy feat. Many storybook Bibles tend to be a bit too complicated or a tad too over-simplified. Machowski strikes the right balance between accuracy and age-appropriate comprehension, and for this I’m grateful. This is perhaps most noticeable when touching on a serious topic like God’s wrath and judgment. This is something you don’t see in a lot of storybook Bibles, even pretty decent ones like The Jesus Storybook Bible. Machowski doesn’t shy away from the hard truths of Scripture, but there are no scare tactics. He speaks plainly and appropriately, always returning to the hope found in the gospel. Perhaps the greatest feature of this storybook Bible is its versatility. It can be used for bedtime stories for the little ones, dinnertime discussion with the older kids, and as a basic primer for the parents in telling the story of Jesus in a way that kids will understand. Of all the storybook Bibles we have, I’d say The Gospel Story Bible is the best. The stories are concise and faithful to the Scriptures, the artwork is engaging, and the discussion questions are extremely helpful. I’d encourage any parent to get a copy of this book to share with their children."
Aaron Armstrong, Author, blogger at BloggingTheologically.com
"If you want your children to grow up loving the Bible, then introduce them to The Gospel Story Bible. Here you have a simple, readable, understandable, and engaging account of 156 of the most powerful stories in the Bible. Every story is of manageable size, and even the most energetic child will be able to remain attentive for an entire story. In fact, you may be pleasantly surprised that your children will want to hear more than one story. The most important feature of the book is that Pastor Machowski sees the gospel in every story! Listen to how his book opens: "God's gospel story starts at the very beginning!" I assure you that it doesn't end there. The gospel permeates every chapter of this book. I highly recommend it."
Nancy E. Ganz, Author of Herein Is Love: A Commentary Series for Children
"Reaching the generations with the gospel requires an enormous amount of parental wisdom and intentionality. Marty Machowski has provided a great tool to aid parents in their primary task of discipling their children. Not only that but The Gospel Story Bible presents the grand story line of Christ in all of Scripture. Every parent should have a copy."
Randy Stinson, Dean, School of Church Ministries, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Former President, The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
"With hints of Marc Chagall, Marty provides more than the requisite 1,000 words with his depictions of biblical stories. The accompanying questions provide a great starting point for discussion with children of all ages, while the illustrations evoke even more stimulating thoughts for reflecting on the story of God's people. See the story again for the first time!"
Dr. Phil Schroeder, Church Consultant - Associate Director of Connectional Ministries, North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church
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We use in our kids program at church, but I ordered one for myself. I love the way the stories are laid out and the pictures are beautiful and vibrant.
I was reading the Jesus Storybook Bible to my kids and we have loved it. However, after reading through it several times, I wanted to get something that was still in a story format, but "meatier". The Gospel Story Bible fits the bill for just that. The stories are well written, although not quite as "fun". The ground of the Bible covered by this book is significant. I'm enjoying the stories and the questions that go with them. Also, I tried reading straight out of a bible (NIV Reader's Edition), but my 4&5 y/o kids become disinterested very quickly and they were not getting much out of it. This book is a good stepping stone. I bought this for my 6 and 8 year old boys and they love it. We read a story at night but I frequently catch them reading it at other times too.
My kids and I really enjoy this bible. We love the story book bible too, this one is just a little more advanced and for kids a little older (5+ i would say). It has more stories and goes into greater detail. The best part is that the last paragraph of each story explains how it relates, points toward and is fulfilled in Jesus. Awesome!
We use this EVERY night before our kids go to bed. It does an excellent job of going a little deeper than the average children's Bible, and it's even been very good for me (dad). I'd recommend this to any family that wants their children to gain a greater understanding of the awesome God we serve and how all of the Old & New testament points to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and salvation through faith in Him.
We bought this in addition to the Jesus Story Book Bible (JSBB) to read to our daughter. She's still an infant and it's basically just to continue the practice of daily reading to her from the Bible. The JSBB only took us 2 months to go through and I dont want to read the same stories 6x a year. This I felt was a good addition and I remembered loving it after reading stories during a Sunday School class. We are enjoying it so far. I am looking forward to reading from it and being able to ask the accompanying questions. I can't speak to what age it is for because everything is too much for our current child, but I feel like I am learning from it as an adult. I also like how it is written and that the scripture each story is from is displayed on the pages.
Our family loves this Bible!! We wanted something that had more Scripture than our other kidÕs Bible, and this has been wonderful! ItÕs a little much for our Preschooler, but we bought it with our Kindergartner in mind because she was ready for more detail and depth, which this has supplied. ItÕs not an ÒanimatedÓ recount, but it is accurate, applicable, and there are so many stories! None of us particularly like the illustrations, but at the same time, we appreciate how theyÕre abstract because we think it helps set it apart from other fictional stories but still gives kids a visual tto help them remember and understand the story. My favorite aspect of this book is how the Old and New Testament is referenced in each story. It gives a micro and macro picture of the Bible, like another popular kidÕs Bible, but is much more Scripturally accurate and applicable. WeÕve enjoyed it as much as our kids!
I read to my 3 and 5 year old, but I think they will get more out of it in a couple years.
A very good story Bible, probably best for kids 5-10.ÊIts strengths are many. First, the book includes 156 stories--78 from the OT and 78 from the NT. This plainly gives children greater exposure to Scripture than is given by most story Bibles. Second, the author did a tremendous job, in my judgment, deciding which details of a story were essential to the story's telling and which were not. I do not recall even once thinking that he had included too many details or too few for the story to make sense. Third, though most of each story is paraphrase, the author usually includes one or two direct quotations from Scripture with the reference in parentheses. Fourth, each story concludes with a paragraph that situates the story theologically, showing pretty skillfully how the story anticipates or calls for Jesus the Messiah. Even when the biblical theology isn't clear, these stories will teach kids that Jesus is the climax of Scripture and that everything points to him. Fifth, each story comes with three questions to help parents and teachers lead kids in reflecting on the story. We read these before bed and would read the three questions before starting the story. Overall, the questions do a good job of telling the kids where to look but not telling them what to see. Then, of course, we would read the questions again after finishing the story to aid comprehension and reflection. Usually one or two of the questions were tied to the picture. Speaking of which: Sixth, the pictures are quite useful pedagogically; they do an excellent job of illustrating the story in ways that are accessible to young kids. Its weaknesses are few. Though the pictures were pedagogically useful and colorful, I do not find the illustrations beautiful; the drawings of people particularly seem almost ugly to me. And the writing style is very matter-of-fact, which is not necessarily a weakness but is noteworthy. Perhaps Machowski would say he wanted the plain beauty of the gospel to attract kids rather than an attractive writing style. Since we used this before bed, we always prayed soon after reading this, and I loved taking the opportunity to praise the Lord for what we'd seen and heard of him in the story; i.e., it was an opportunity to take the matter-of-fact writing in an explicitly doxological direction.
Good story but weird pictures. I'm not a fan of the art. It's only more confusing. The Gospel message is good.
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