Kinderstories
Maranatha Platemaatskappy
Resensie deur Oom Treebeard

Hoe leer 'n mens kleuters en peuters (3 - 8 jaar oud) dat God meer as 'n vae begrip ver van hier is? Jy vertel stories. En as jy slim is, kry jy vir Pierre Vee van In The House om die stories te vertel - die man is mos van drama aanmekaargesit! Dan skryf jy stories met sulke woeps-in-jou-hart-kruip karaktertjies, gooi 'n lekker in-die-kop-vassteek liedjie in, en jy't 'n wenner!

Dis presies wat Brokkel en Bam-Bam Volume 1 is: Een liedjie, twee nagapies, en drie uitstekende stories. Die eerste storietjie stel kinders voor aan God as die Vader, dan leer hulle hoe om hulle hartjies vir God te gee, en in die laaste storie leer hulle stap vir stap hoe om te bid. Met ander woorde, die eerste treetjies van die Christelike lewe, aangebied sodat kleingoed dit duidelik kan verstaan.

Waarskynlik sou net Pierre Vee kon besluit om nagapies in die stories in te span, maar die konsep werk! Vra maar vir al die kleintjies wat klaar twee nuwe vriendjies het en lustig sing aan Brokkel en Bam-Bam se liedjie. Of vra hulle ouers, wat weer en weer en weer en weer saamluister!

Goeie Christelike materiaal vir die kleintjies, in Afrikaans, is nogal skaars. So, Pa, Ma, Ouma, Oupa, Oom, Tannie, almal wat kleuters en peuters in die familie het, gaan koop Brokkel en Bam-Bam, en maak 'n paar hartjies baie bly!

Hopelik is Volume 1 inderdaad net volume 1 - die begin van nog baie!

Bernice Crowder released her self-titled debut album in October 2010, but behind the big voice lies a story of pain and tears - yet also a story of hope, a testimony to the greatness of the God she serves. We'll let her tell it in her own words:

"I was born in picturesque East London, the youngest and most “eccentric” of four. Despite the relentless teasing, which often happens in large families, I had an extremely happy childhood; though we weren’t wealthy at all, we got by. Music was always my Passion and it was during my childhood that God placed a dream within me that “The music He placed within me I will share with world.

"Over the years, especially in my teen-age years, I developed a low self-image. Amongst friends I was always the tallest and biggest with the “biggest feet” and though I was accustomed to teasing, it always managed to stick. We're all familiar with the saying “sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me” - I learnt early on that this was a lie. One incident I can recall: I was singing at a school assembly and that same day someone walked passed me and mocked me with his friends saying in Afrikaans “Hier's die meisie met die man stem!” I was embarrassed and hurt and I believed him. Being young I didn’t identify it for what it was, that it was only the devil’s tactic to get me silent; believe me, it worked for a while.

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Lee Strobel: The Case for the Real Jesus
Published by Zondervan
Review by Treebeardp;
What is the truth about Jesus?

Lee Strobel, award-winning legal editor at the Chicago Tribune, was a spiritual skeptic until his agnostic wife's conversion to Christ prompted him to use his legal training and journalistic skills to systematically examine the evidence to find out who Jesus really was. "It wasn't the outcome I was necessarily seeking," he writes, but the evidence convinced him that "Jesus is the unique Son of God who authenticated his divinity by returning from the dead."

The result of that investigation was published in 1998 as "The Case for Christ". But since that time the Jesus of historic Christianity has come under fierce attack from all around, and not least from within the Christian Church. This latest book of Strobel is an attempt to deal with this attack in its various forms by first explaining the challenge, then examining the evidence for and against its main theses in a scholarly responsible, and finally relating his investigations and its results in a book for "normal people".

The attack on the identity of the historical Jesus consists of 6 challenges which, on the surface, appears to be devastating to the Christian faith:
1. "Scholars Are Uncovering a Radically Different Jesus in Ancient Documents Just as Credible as the Four Gospels"
2. "The Bible's Portrait of Jesus Can't Be Trusted Because the Church Tampered with the Text"
3. "New Explanations Have Refuted Jesus' Resurrection"
4. Christianity's Beliefs about Jesus Were Copied from Pagan Religions"
5. Jesus Was an Imposter Who Failed to Fulfill the Messianic Prophecies"
6. People should be Free to Pick and Choose What to Believe about Jesus"

These challenges are presented in the media, on the Internet, even in Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code as facts supported by cutting edge scholarship - but is it true?

Read more »

By Treebeard

Have you been confused by the "experts" telling you that the Bible is not correct, that Jesus wasn't a real person, and similar lies?

That's how I started a post in November last year, entitled "Confused by the 'experts'", which really did nothing more than point readers to the site www.y-jesus.com, a site that answers attacks on and questions about the Christian faith by offering solid answers in language understandable to average Jane's and Joe's like most of us.

Since then this short post (96 words) has had thousands of page views, somewhat to my amazement! It seems there's a lot of people out there searching for the true facts about the serious questions of faith, not just simplistic "answers" or outright denial of the issues.

From personal experience I know that answers to the serious questions about our faith are not so easy to find. Most material tend to be so scholarly as to be unintelligible to us "normal" people, or else it is so shallow (typical TV soundbite stuff) as to be totally meaningless to a serious seeker.

So I'm going to try to find some usable resources, and write posts "advertising"them. I can't promise you lots of suggestions, but I'll try my best. And if you know of anything that might be of use to others, please use the "Contact" link at the top of the page to send me the details.

Have you been confused by the "experts" telling you that the Bible is not correct, That Jesus wasn't a real person, and similar lies?

Well, I have found a site that gives you hard facts about the Christain faith in a manner that everybody can understand. (No confusing theological/technical jargon.)

At www.y-jesus.com you can find articles like
Are the Gospels true?
Is Jesus God?
Did Jesus rise from the dead?
and lots more. Strong Biblical scholarship, presented in an exciting understandable manner.

Go check it out. Maybe you can subscribe to their magazine as well.