Jesus. All About Life
Jesus is all about life. Even for teenagers.
This is a book I’ve been waiting a very long time for. I’m often looking for great Christian books that I can put into the hands of a teenager and say “read this, it’s good”. Most Christian stuff out there is pitched at too high a level for your average 14 year old. And once you’ve used up John Dickson’s fantastic books, there’s not a great deal left out there. Until now. Murray Smith’s Jesus All About Life is just the book I’ve been waiting for.
If you’re a Christian living in Sydney, I hope you’ve heard about the Jesus All About Life campaign. It’s being run by the Bible Society. If you haven’t heard about it, the big idea is that all the churches, across denominations, in Sydney are gearing up for this big media event. There’s going to be TV ads, billboards, newspaper ads etc. There’s going to be a major push to put the name of Jesus in front of as many people as possible. This will, God willing, give us Christians opportunities to start conversations with people about Jesus. Sounds great, doesn’t it? And so we’re not left out in the cold, Bible Society have been producing resources to tie in to the event. The stuff I’ve seen so far looks fantastic. And Murray Smith’s youth book is a perfect example.
Smith tells the story of Jesus and why you need him in your life. This is brought to life with some really catchy illustrations. I showed a group of teenagers the bit in the book where Smith talks about having emergency surgery in the Philippines and they were hooked. They wanted to read more. But perhaps my favourite part of this book is how Smith pauses to pray with the reader at different parts of the book. It takes the gospel out of the world of head knowledge and makes it personal. Because knowing Jesus is personal.
The makers of this book have put a lot of effort into making this book visually appealing. It’s full of well designed and colourful graphic design work. I would not be embarrassed handing this book out to people. It looks that good. I’m even thinking of buying a box full to give out to local teens.
If you’re keen on getting your hands on a copy of this book, you can buy it online at the Bible Society NSW Bookshop. While you’re there, also have a look at the Jesus All About Life edition of Mark. Again, it looks great and it’s not easy finding individual editions of the Gospel in NIV.
For more articles by Joel A Moroney, head to Pop Culture Christ.
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