Witnesses Unto Me » Reviews

Put Logos In Your Will

Jason Smathers — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 21:53:10 +0000

Many seminary students, staff, and faculty benefit from Logo’s academic pricing. Many pastors got their first package when they were in seminary at these discount rates. As you build up a large electronic library, you may start to wonder if you can pass it on like generations before us have passed on their paper libraries. When you invest hundreds or more likely thousands of dollars in a library, it seems it should not disappear at your death. Unfortunately, Logos has a policy which prevents the transfer of titles obtained via the academic program. You are not allowed to give them as a gift, you cannot sell them, nor can you leave them to your kids.

There is one exception to this policy. Specifically put your Logos library in your will and what should happen to it when you go on to be with the Lord. Logos will honor this transfer request for a $20 fee, even if you took advantage of academic pricing.

Logos Speed

Jason Smathers — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 19:14:55 +0000

Logos is surely the market leader in Bible software for Windows. But, it has a reputation for being slow. For this reason, WORDsearch is a good alternative when speed is a concern. If you are running Logos and need a speed bump, let me suggest moving your Logos library to a solid state hard drive. You can install a second hard drive in many computers and if you get one large enough for Logos, you will surely notice an enormous speed boost. Unless you buy a huge solid state drive, you will probably want to limit what you store on it. Throw your pictures and videos on the old school drive. Put your operating system and the apps you want to speed up on the solid state drive.

Speed Test

Logos 4 Launch Time

Standard Hard Drive: 65 Seconds

Solid State Hard Drive: 12 Seconds

Loading Passage and Exegetical Guides

Standard Hard Drive: 2 Minutes 48 Seconds

Solid State Hard Drive: 11 Seconds

Note: this comparison is not on identical hardware, but the hard drive seems to be primarily responsible for the speed increase in these tests.

Give Your Children an Ephesians 6:4 Christmas (2010)

Jason Smathers — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 05:29:00 +0000

2010 Christmas Buying Guide

“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” Ephesians 6:4 (ESV)

The Creation Series, A Bible-based Reading Project, 8 Book Box Set
$14.79 at Westminster Bookstore

Think about See Spot Run, except where you learn the Word of God while learning to read. The publisher lists these for children ages four to seven, but I would say they are perfect for reading to children from birth. They become good education tools with mom and dad at preschool age.

The eight books are:

Book 1: God’s World
Book 2: Light, Sky, Land and Sea
Book 3: Plants and Lights
Book 4: Sea Creatures
Book 5: Birds
Book 6: Animals
Book 7: People
Book 8: A Beautiful Garden

This series would be perfect for a home schooling situation and everyone else that wants to help their kids get a jump start on their reading. I’ve actually been waiting for a product like this to come along. Why does learning to read need to be secularized? Now there is a solution not only from the Christian worldview, but learning to read God’s truth.

Each book has Bible references, which can be used as memory verses if you so choose. This is part of the note to parents which is in the front of each book. Great study tips to help parents use the books as educational tools.

I highly recommend The Creation Series.

Our Home is like a Little Church
$3.94 at Westminster Bookstore

This short book is written for preschoolers to teach them the home is a place of worship. It just might serve as a reminder to dads about their duties at home as well. It compares the pastor at church with the pastor at home (dad).

Jesus Christ the Best King of all
$6.99 from Amazon.com

Kudos to illustrator Fred Apps for creating a picture book about Jesus, without a picture of Jesus!

This is a great exposition of the incarnation written for the very young. Read it with your preschoolers and kindergartners, first and second graders on their own.

Martin Luther: What Should I Do?
$7.99 from Amazon.com

This biography of Martin Luther is written for children ages eight to twelve and can be read to children much younger.

This short biography is accessible to young children and contains the Gospel so they can understand it. Grounding your children in the faith includes this type of history which guards us from false teachers coming back into the church and helps us embrace the actual doctrines of our creator.

Jesus Rose from the Dead: The Evidence
$7.99 on Amazon.com

The world loves to poke imaginary holes in our faith. If you are not grounded in the faith, someone just might be able to knock you off your faith. Safeguard your kids with this great apologetic tool geared for kids ages eight to twelve. You can use it with younger kids if you work on it with them.

John Calvin: After Darkness Light
$6.99 on Amazon.com

This year was John Calvin’s 500th birthday, help your children appreciate the great reformation work done through John Calvin with this great biography geared for young teens.

The GoBible Voyager, NIV translation
$84.99 on Amazon.com
More info from gobible.com

I do not have a nice mp3 player. I tried loading an mp3 Bible on my phone and on a cheap mp3 player, but it was just a pain. The GoBible makes listening to the Bible on the go easy. The Voyager model has an extra 3 Gigabytes of storage so you can store your music or audio books on it as well. The Voyager can hold 750 songs or over 100 hours of audio books.

It comes with a nice pouch to keep it in good shape. The headphones are good quality and the sound is great. Most importantly, navigating around the Bible is easy. Navigating the Bible with some mp3 players using an mp3 Bible is about impossible.

I was a bit disappointed at first because there was no ESV option. However, after a little contemplation, I figured that I do not need a rigid literal translation for listening. When listening to the Bible, I am not in intense Bible study. The pace is too quick for that and the NIV reads well. KJV and NKJV versions are also available from gobible.com.

Already have an iPhone or an iPod touch? Consider the GoBible iPhone app. I’ve not tried it, but the price looks right to me and the hardware GoBible impresses me, so I’d take a chance on the iPhone app. It runs $23.99, less than half the price of the ESV mp3 Bible on CD.

The Listener’s Bible ESV (mp3)
$49.95 on Amazon.com

Already have a good mp3 player? Consider loading The Listener’s Bible on it. Read by Max McLean… easy to listen to.

God’s Words from A to Z by Abe and Liza Philip
$12.97 from publisher on CD, or $9.99 download

This is a fun CD which sings through the scriptures. One passage per letter of the alphabet, starting with “All have sinned and fall short of the glory..”

The recording is impressive. The quality exceeded my expectations. The music is indistinguishable from any big label production. This looks like a great way to help your kids learn to memorize scripture.

From the publisher:

These 26 songs will take you on a journey that begins with our sinfulness, runs to the cross of our Savior and ends with the joy of heaven. The music is energetic and diverse, including jazz, classical, bluegrass, reggae, country, pop, rock, Indian, Celtic and folk.

My family did find the announcement at the beginning of each verse, read by a young child, to be somewhat distracting. We would have preferred the music play all the way through, perhaps sining the scripture citation to avoid the breaks in the music.

Abe and Liza Philip have some other CDs for adults as well. Their lyrics are Christ centered. The music has a modern sound, but has theologically rich lyrics that are rare to find in modern music. Check out My Savior’s Love is Greater Still as a great example of their style. Great stuff!

More albums from Abe and Liza at philipmusic.com

Music from Sing The Word
CDs range from $8.95-$14.95

Sing the Word is a great alternative to the Christian pop music found on your radio dial.

Pictured here is the album, A New Commandment, a CD targeted for kids ages 6-7, but I have no problem listening with my 3 year old. The first song is Psalm 1, with a great tune and a voice that kids love.

The Harrow family’s music is expository, letting the scripture create the music. A very unique trait in the days where shallow praise music reigns.

When browsing Sing The Word’s website, be sure to look at the album The Quiet Time Collection, which consists of calming songs chosen from their entire series geared for children 0-7.

Seeds of Character
$15 pre-order from Seeds of Worship

I have not heard this one yet, but I am a fan of all the earlier CDs.

Pre-order the Seeds of Character album and receive:

* Christmas card with a download card with 6 Seeds songs
* Full Seeds album by Easter 2011 (shipping April 1). This includes the famous Seeds buy-one/give-one packaging–two identical CDs providing you an extra to share with friends near or far.

OliveTree BibleReader for BlackBerry, installation demo

Jason Smathers — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 06:31:00 +0000

After my earlier review, I was asked for another video showing how to install BibleReader for BlackBerry. This three minute video shows the installation process. This is an updated version of BibleReader for BlackBerry that includes support for Greek and Hebrew resources. I hope to provide a review of the new Greek and Hebrew resources in the near future.

The current version also takes care of a pesky little bug that caused the books, chapters and verses to get scrambled in the verse chooser. There are also some improvements with the look, having more attractive menus and icons. The default of scrolling by page is now by line, allowing for a much better reading experience. This was possible to change in earlier versions, but now this setting is taken care of right out of the box.

Glo Bible: Cool technology, questionable theology

Jason Smathers — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 04:50:00 +0000

As a Bible reading platform for the layman, Glo’s technology really stands out. Glo brings together text, video, maps, and the Bible text in a well presented fashion. The navigation system is easy to use and familiar. Researching a topic is like using an online mapping service. Just as you start off with a globe and zoom in to find states, cities, then streets; in Glo you see clouds of major topics, zooming in shows more and more sub-topics. Unfortunately, this flashy technology will expose you to some questionable theology.

Maps

The mapping software is also quite cool. You can zoom in on modern satellite and aerial images. This is cool, but I wonder if it is really beneficial. Zooming in on the swimming pool behind a house where Ephesus was might be neat, but it doesn’t serve much purpose for the sake of Bible study. In fact, this seems to be more of a distraction than anything else.

Translations

Glo provides KJV, NIV and CEV translations of the Bible.

Articles

The written articles are very good. I was unable to find any credits for the written work, upon my inquiry, I was told these articles came from Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible.

Bible Study Tools

Note taking in Glo is a place where the technology shines. Your notes build up a journal and they are stored online for safe keeping. You can also take screen captures of anything you are working on in Glo to save as PDFs or JPEGs.

Pictures

As I look through the images, I see a lot of content that is a distraction more than anything. For example, alongside Matthew 15:16-17, we are shown a picture of native children from the neighborhood of Jerusalem. I do not see how this is relevant. Also, images of Christ are abundant, which I believe is sinful. Sometimes a picture can be a help, but I do not trust these pictures.

To compare, the ESV Study Bible has a picture of the ark. I trust the editorial team of the ESV Study Bible enough to believe they took great care following the scriptures to create this picture. In Glo, you will find multiple different pictures of the ark, and I doubt that much care was taken or that any editor compared the pictures to the Biblical text.

Video

My biggest problem with Glo is the video content. It is horrible. After reading some great written articles, I was shocked by the videos. The videos constantly undermine the sufficiency of the scriptures. Writer and narrator, Troy Schmidt, often starts segments by saying “To truly understand the God Man…” then he interviews a modern fisherman or a nun or goes to a historical site. Let me make this clear: to truly understand Jesus, read your Bible.

Glo as a platform

This year, Glo will be releasing tools to customize the content distributed with Glo. I do not recommend this product as it comes off the shelf because I dislike the stock content. However, the technology is very cool. With the proper authoring tools and content, you could release a theologically sound version to your church members. I could see some mega churches doing this, including video sermons indexed by Bible verse and topic. I would buy a copy if it was filled with theologically sound content. Perhaps someone wants to make a John Piper version? He surely has enough published work online to fill a product like this.

The Institutes in WORDSearch 9

Jason Smathers — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 06:02:00 +0000

Did John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion make your 2010 reading list? I encourage you to partake in a one year journey through the Institutes. You will not be alone, Bound With Christ is a new blog which provides a reading schedule and a place to discuss the reading.

Once you make the commitment to read through the Institutes, you need to pick up a copy. You can buy a paper copy, read it on the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for free, or download it as a PDF.

I will be reading using my eBook software. Specifically, I will be reading in the new WORDSearch 9. WORDsearch provides over 200 free books, and the Institutes of the Christian Religion is one of them. You can either read it for free using the free eBook software Bible Explorer 4, or you can use the more powerful WORDSearch 9 software. WORDsearch 9 packages start at $49.95 for the Thompson Bible Library and goes up to $349.95 for the Preaching Library. I purchased WORDSearch 8, but was provided a complementary upgrade to WORDSearch 9 for the purpose of blogging about it. For the purpose of reading the Institutes alone, you will do just fine with the free Bible Explorer 4 software. All of the features I use in this post are available in Bible Explorer.

WORDSearch 9 allows for custom desktops, which are really just saved window arrangements. I have several setup and have found setting up the perfect desktop for the task is really the key to being productive in WORDSearch.. For example I have a desktop setup for commentary reading. In one corner is the cross reference explorer, in another corner are all my Bible translations, then taking up half the screen are my favorite commentaries. In the same way, I have created myself an Institutes desktop. I have 2/3rds of the screen dedicated to the Institutes, the other 1/3rd I have open the ESV Bible. I also have my person notes open, just under the Institutes and the rest of my library hidden. A couple of quirks to note, the desktop does not save perfectly, the screen split resets to 50/50 and the personal notes are hidden when you exit WORDSearch.

So, why is this better than reading it on a website or a PDF?

Linked Bible. Just hover your mouse over a scripture reference to read that verse. Click it to have your Bible window jump to that verse.
Notes. Taking notes in a PDF is not ideal. I’ve used PDFs as ebooks before and it is quite cumbersome. Taking notes on a website is even harder, although possible with services like sidewiki.
Highlighting. Several colors are available, quick and easy to apply.
Bookmarks. Easy to place, easy to jump to.
Navigation. The table of contents makes for easy navigation and can stay open on the left or can easily be hidden.

OliveTree BibleReader for BlackBerry with ESV Study Bible, a review

Jason Smathers — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:06:00 +0000

BibleReader 4 for BlackBerry

from OliveTree

Overall I am very happy with the product. I was using YouVersion on my BlackBerry for Bible reading and I found that having to access the internet caused too much latency to get to a verse. Particularly in a rural church with block walls keeping out wifi and most cell signal. BibleReader 4 is the best Bible reader I have used thus far on my BlackBerry. I will keep YouVersion on my BlackBerry, but only to use when I want a translation not in BibleReader.

General navigation in BibleReader is quite easy. I am able to get to a verse faster than I could using a paper Bible. In the past, using YouVersion, I would be the last person to the text in a Bible study because it was so slow. Using BibleReader, I am the first one there. The verse chooser is very easy to use and quick, which you can see in both videos. One caveat about speed, although getting around is quick once you are in BibleReader, it is not quick to load. Be sure to have it open to the library before you are ready to use it or you might find yourself in a pickle. I assume some of this slowness has to do with the amount of resources I loaded. I have about 150 MB in my library. When I say navigation is quick, I am talking about after you load the library.

I want to make it clear that I am very happy with what BibleReader does before I sink my teeth into what it doesn’t do.

UPDATE: What I thought was a problem with the way text scrolls, is actually a setting. By default, it is set to page scrolling, but by changing to line scrolling it is much easier to follow the text.

Note taking and highlighting is unfortunately missing from OliveTree on BlackBerry. I hope to see this added soon as it would really go a long way to making BibleReader a real alternative to a pocket sized paper Bible. Next to this, I would like to see some advanced search options, particularly searching across multiple resources. For example, I often want to find a specific phrase in the Bible, but am not sure what translation I am remembering the phrase from. Finally, some greater cross reference tools would be nice. When I am in a text, it would be great to see what resources I have the reference the verse rather than having to check each one to see if there is commentary on the verse.

Free Resources

OliveTree makes over 150 resources available for free. I am very impressed with the selection which includes great resources by John Piper, Spurgeon, Augustine, Luther, Calvin and others.

Some of the free resources are formated better than others. None of the ones I tried allowed for bookmarks to be placed. Searching did work well which is great.

Perhaps there is a way that I have missed, but I would love to be able to import my own resources. Think how powerful it would be to import your sermon notes or lesson plan right into BibleReader and also how great it would be if you could link to the text from your notes.

ESV Study Bible

The ESV Study Bible is a great resource. Heather uses it as her primary paper Bible and I frequently use the web version.

Navigation is easy. A cool feature is being able to access the ESV Study Bible notes from any translation. You can effectively have the ESV study Bible commentary with the NASB text or whatever your favorite translation is. When you are on a verse, you simply select the ESVSB from the library, and you are taken to the commentary for the verse you are on. Clicking the BlackBerry back button takes you back to the text or you can click the text in the commentary to be taken to that text in the Bible.

I am not going to get into an in depth review of the ESV Study Bible, I think it is already well recognized as one of the best study Bibles in existence. C.J. Mahaney says it well: “I can’t imagine a greater gift to the body of Christ than the ESV Study Bible. It is a potent combination indeed: the reliability and readability of the ESV translation, supplemented by the best of modern and faithful scholarship, packaged in an accessible and attractive format. A Christian could make no wiser investment for himself, a pastor could recommend no better resource for his congregation.”

The ESV Study Bible is huge. Now you can carry it in your pocket and you can navigate it quicker than ever.

Video demonstration of BibleReader with ESV Study Bible

Please excuse the audio in these videos, the only microphone I have is built into my laptop and it has an echo and picks up my laptop fan noise just as well as my voice.

Update:

After posting this review I received an email from Christopher Coleman, the developer for BlackBerry at OliveTree. He showed me that the scrolling problem that I mentioned is an option. Line scrolling will become the default in later versions, but for now you can change this in the options menu.

Christopher also pointed out a few more things:

The version of BibleReader in my video is not the latest. It seems OliveTree had an outdated link that I found. Christopher tells me the new version has a much nicer user interface than what you see in the video. I just upgraded and can confirm, it is much prettier! I do not have much more to say yet though because I have not had time to use this version at length yet.
The Strongs numbers can be hidden or shown using an option in the menu.
Notes and highlighting are coming soon
Searching and cross referencing across books is also on the to do list already.
The next features we will see: Greek & Hebrew support!

Give Your Children an Ephesians 6:4 Christmas

Jason Smathers — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:46:00 +0000

2009 Christmas Buying Guide

“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” Ephesians 6:4 (ESV)

I’ve dug around and picked out the resources that will help in bringing up your children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. These resources we either already own, are buying for Christmas, want to buy when finances permit, or plan to buy when Delilah is old enough for them.

Picture Bibles

The Children’s Story Bible. 3 Volume Paperback edition. By Catherine Vos.

This edition respects the reformed tradition on images of Christ. You will not find any in this picture bible. In a time when sinful illustrations of Jesus are everywhere, this is hard to find.

Westminster Bookstore lists this on their early elementary (age 6-7) list, but we ordered one for Delilah (age 2) for Christmas. She will surely need us to read to her, but isn’t that how all reading is done with a 2 year old?

The New Children’s Bible by Anne De Vries. Hardcover.

This Bible was recommended to me by brother Nathan White as another picture Bible without images of Christ.

Brother Nathan recommends this book for ages 5 and up.

Catechism

The Baptist Catechism Set to Music

Putting the catechism to music is an incredibly effective means for memorization. Countless times I am in a conversation and a topic addressed in the catechism comes up. I find myself singing the song to myself to recall a specific doctrine.

We gave these CDs to Delilah on Easter last year and she loves them. We enjoy them too! Really a gift for all ages.

Truth and Grace memory books

We have just the first in the series so far. It is for age 2 through the 4th grade, so it should last us a long time since Delilah is 2 now. These books give age appropriate memory verses, catechism questions, and hymns. Delilah has Genesis 1:1 and Ephesians 6:1 memorized thanks to these books. She also is getting the hang of the Doxology and knows some of the catechism questions. Plus it is just fun to hear her say ‘Doxology.’

Book two is for grades 5-8 and the third book is for grades 9-12.

Story Books [and animatic DVDs]

The Eaglet, available as a book, animatic DVD, or combo pack with both.

The Eaglet is an allegorical tale of a baby eagle that wants to fly and does so against the warning of his father. The first part of the DVD is this story. The second explains the allegory in a way that children can understand while remaining theologically sound and being very evangelistic. Finally the third part is a recap boiled down into five truths you cannot forget. See my full review here.

Dangerous Journey

Recommended by Jim Elliff and Steve Burchett in an interview on Children’s Ministry. They tell us:

One “world-class” book for your use is Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan. For years a rendition of this book for children, Dangerous Journey (Zondervan), has been a favorite of ours for the excellent graphics and choice of story portions. Along with this excellent tool, a DVD using the book itself is available.

Sammy and His Shepherd

Sammy and His Shepherd is a allegorical tale where Sammy (a Christian) has a wonderful Shepherd (Jesus) and befriends a sheep with a bad shepherd (a lost friend). In each of the eleven chapters, Susan Hunt does a wonderful job of using the allegory to exegete a passage of Psalm 23.

Susan Hunt takes us through Psalm 23 in a way both parents and children will learn from. Cory Godbey did a wonderful job with the illustrations, but the words to pictures ratio was a bit off to keep my two year old’s attention. I’d recommend this book for ages 5 and up. I do not mention an upper limit here because even though this book is targeted for kids, tweens, teens, and even adults will find the book entertaining and enlightening.

Read my full review here

The Lightlings by RC Sproul

The allegory is clear for our young children and will help them grasp Biblical concepts. The story begins with creation, continues with the fall of man, and ends with the gift of Jesus. Read my full review.

The Lightlings is also now available as an animatic DVD.

The Prince’s Poison Cup by RC Sproul

The Prince’s Poison Cup is an allegory explaining atonement and is the next logical story to help children understand the Gospel.

The Prince’s Poison Cup is now also available as an Animatics DVD

Doctrine

Learn About God (6 Book Set) (Board Book)

These six board books teach children infants to age 3 the doctrine of God. The titles are available both as a set or individually:

Big Thoughts for Little Thinkers 4 Book Set (Hardcover)

Includes: The Trinity, The Gospel, The Scripture, and The Mission.

This is a set of books Delilah will get getting for Christmas this year. I am quite excited about them. These are very important doctrines, explained in a way our young kids can understand. The entire book on the trinity is available for preview. The book ends with the Constantinopolitan Creed of A.D. 381 quoted in full. I am impressed.

Publisher’s Description: The Big Thoughts for Little Thinkers series introduces children ages four to eight to the fundamental teachings about God based on the Bible. The most foundational teachings of the Christian faith are presented in this four-book set at a level preschool and elementary children can understand. Colorful illustrations compliment every page of orthodox Christian doctrine, creating an enjoyable learning experience for the child. In contrast to self-centered theology and watered-down Bible storybooks, the Big Thoughts for Little Thinkers series promotes God-centered theology with simple and precise teaching while offering stability and a strong, lasting connection with the faith.

Music

If you only get one CD, be sure you have the Baptist Catechism set to music. But if you are looking for more, consider these hymn books with CDs. Each comes with a nice hardback book including the music sheet, a story, scripture, and a prayer for each song. This is a great way to really get some meaning out of the hymns.

Hymns for a Kid’s Heart, Vol. 1 with CD

Hymns for a Kid’s Heart, Vol. 2 with CD

Christmas Carols for a Kid’s Heart, Book with CD

Passion Hymns for a Kid’s Heart with CD

UPDATE: The Cecil and Friends series has been removed from this list. When putting it on this list I had only read one from the series. After reading the rest of the books I am forced to retract my recommendation due to images of Christ.

Sammy and His Shepherd, a review

Jason Smathers — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:43:00 +0000

Reformation Trust children’s books are refreshing. Theological sloppiness is common in children’s resources, but I’ve come to trust the material from Reformation Trust to be sound. I asked the author of Sammy and His Shepherd, Susan Hunt, how she ensures theological accuracy in her book. Susan Hunt is the wife of a retired PCA pastor whom gives support and helps with theological accuracy. In other cases Susan Hunt gets additional review from other pastors, friends, or the elders of her local church. In the case of Sammy and His Shepherd, she “had great confidence in the theological oversight of the Ligonier editors” and didn’t see the need for additional oversight. I agree her confidence was well placed as I too have come to trust the theological oversight of the Ligonier editors.

At the end of the story, Susan Hunt has provided us with a great teaching resource to use in discussing the book with our children. For each chapter we are given a section of what the Bible tells us, something to talk about, and something to do.

Sammy and His Shepherd is a great story that will give both parents and children a deeper understanding of Jesus and Psalm 23.

About the Author

Susan Hunt is a consultant for the Presbyterian Church in America’s Women in the Church ministry, which she formerly directed. She holds a degree in Christian education from Columbia Theological Seminary and has written Sunday school curricula for Great Commission Publications. She is a popular speaker at conferences in the United States and abroad. Her numerous published books include Women’s Ministry in the Local Church (co-authored with Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III) and Heirs of the Covenant, plus such children’s titles as My ABC Bible Verses and Big Truths for Little Kids (co-authored with her son Richie Hunt). Susan and her husband, Gene, a retired pastor, make their home in Marietta, Georgia. They have three adult children and twelve grandchildren.

The Lightlings by RC Sproul, a review

Jason Smathers — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:24:00 +0000

Written in a similar style to The Prince’s Poison Cup, or visa versa considering The Lightlings was published first. The story begins with little Charlie Cobb; he asks his mom a tough question which she refers to wise Grandpa. Grandpa begins his embedded allegorical tale just as any story Grandpa tells: Once upon a time…

The King of The Lightlings is called The King Without a Shadow. I’m sure this character is borrowed from Sproul’s earlier children’s book, but I’ve not read it. The plot of The Lightlings remains clear, nothing seems to be lost despite the fact I’ve not read The King Without a Shadow.

The allegory is clear for our young children and will help them grasp Biblical concepts. The story begins with creation, continues with the fall of man, and ends with the gift of Jesus.

The allegory does lack a clear call to faith and repentance. I recommend also getting a copy of Sproul’s The Prince’s Poison Cup which is an allegory explaining atonement and is the next logical story to help children understand the Gospel.

Sproul provides three pages of discussion topics for parents to use after reading this book. This discussion time is essential so that we can relate the story back to the scriptures. Sproul does a fantastic job of equipping us to minister to our children.

The Lightlings is suited for children ages 4-10, the younger side needing more help of course. Justin Gerard has done a fantastic job with the illustrations; they will mesmerize your children.