Kirby McCook and the Jesus Chronicles: A 12-Year-Old's Take on the Totally Unboring, Slightly Weird Stuff in the Bible, Including Fish Guts, Wrestling Moves, and Stinky Feet

by Stephen Arterburn M. ED., M.N. Brotherton, Damian Zain (Illustrator)

Overview

ECPA 2020 Christian Book Award Winner!

It’s like Captain Underpants meets the Bible, only reverent!
What happens when a room full of kids find themselves without a junior-church teacher? They choose one of their own crowd to take her place, of course! Twelve-year-old Kirby McCook, mentored by his grandfather, leads his rambunctious friends through the Bible in this creative and fun Bible storybook. Bible stories laced with middle-grade humor help teach kids that Jesus has been part of the story from the beginning and can be found throughout the Bible, from Genesis through Revelation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781496429773
Publisher:	Tyndale House Publishers
Publication date:	09/03/2019
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

JESUS — RIGHT FROM THE START

Ahem.

Everybody listening? Jimmy? Olivia?

Okay. We'll learn about Jesus right from the start. The story of Jesus doesn't start with a baby in a manger. Nope. Not with a shining star hung over a stable, not with shepherds watching sheep sleep. And it certainly doesn't start with three wise guys and their gold, Frankenstein, and myrrh.

Every kid thinks Jesus' story starts at Christmastime, because we like Christmas presents. Yahoo!

But Jesus' story actually starts before the beginning of time. Long before there were books or bathtubs or skateboards or purple shag carpets. Long before cheeseburgers or pizza or cookies with sprinkles. Long before anything ever was, Jesus was.

Jesus existed before anything was created. In the beginning was Jesus, and Jesus was with God, and Jesus was God.

Now we all gotta get really brainy here — even Jimmy the Astonishing Sneeze Machine — because usually we just say that God was there before anything else, and when we say "God," we're thinking about God the Father.

But here's this mysterious idea to wrestle with — God in Three Persons, aka the Trinity.

My Grandpa McCook once told me that there's God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and all three were there as the Great One before anything else existed. That means Jesus' story starts way back when, because Jesus is God the Son. Well, Jesus' story actually has NO START, because he's eternal, which means any start point you can name, Jesus was there before that.

We don't know exactly what God's Son did back then, but he didn't just hang out in heaven, killing time until he wrapped himself in a human body and came to earth as a baby. Nope.

The Bible says that Jesus is "supreme over all creation," and that God created everything through Jesus. Jesus made the things we can see and the things we can't see. Hey, just because you can't see something doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Think about it: we can't see gravity, but it's real. Throw an apple up and stand directly underneath it. You'll know gravity is real when that apple lands on your head. Thu-thunk! Gravity is something Jesus created.

We can't see air, or love, or hate, or radio waves, or subatomic particles like those whatchamacallits — quarks. Thanks for shouting that out, Jimmy. You do use that incredible brain sometimes. Quarks are even tinier than atoms. And all those unseeable things are real.

We can't see God the Father, but he's real. What's one way we know God is real? Because Jesus is the "visible image of the invisible God." Jesus radiates God's glory and expresses God's character.

God the Father had a job for Jesus in the beginning. Jesus gave life and breath to everything. That's right. Jesus was the Designer and Creator. Jesus was the Amazing Person who made this whole universe out of — get this — nothing. Yep, his raw material was a big bunch of nothing.

We don't know exactly how Jesus did it. But we know for sure that when the universe came to be, the Father started it all through Jesus.

The bell rang, and we all noticed Grandpa McCook talking to Mr. Javier, the children's minister, outside our classroom window. We all silently left, eyes wide, wondering what would happen next week.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Kirby McCook and the Jesus Chronicles"
by .
Copyright © 2019 Marcus Brotherton and Stephen Arterburn.
Excerpted by permission of Tyndale House Publishers.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments, vii,
A Note to Parents and Teachers, xiii,
Start Reading Here, 1,
1. Jesus — Right from the Start, 5,
2. Jesus Makes Dinosaurs, 8,
3. Jesus Jump-Starts Humans, 12,
4. Jesus Gives Hope to a Sketchy World, 16,
5. Jesus Deals with Messes, 20,
6. Jesus in Disguise, 24,
7. Jesus Rules, 28,
8. Jesus — Champion Wrestler, 32,
9. Jesus Stops a Terrorist, 36,
10. Jesus and the Bloody Lamb, 40,
11. Jesus the Superspy, 44,
12. Jesus Carries a Big Sword, 48,
13. Jesus Has a Code Name, 52,
14. Jesus in Flash-Forward, 56,
15. Jesus Keeps His Cool, 60,
16. Jesus and a Hot-Fudge Sundae, 64,
17. Jesus and His Country Cousin, 68,
18. Jesus Is God Flesh-Wrapped, 72,
19. Jesus Was an Itty-Bitty Baby, 76,
20. Jesus Escapes the Noose, 80,
21. Jesus Meets the Grasshopper Eater, 84,
22. Jesus Gets Down to Business, 88,
23. Jesus Likes Parties, 92,
24. Jesus Meets Folks One-on-One, 96,
25. Jesus Is No Pushover, 100,
26. Jesus Meets Some Sick Dudes, 104,
27. Jesus and the Slimeballs, 108,
28. Jesus Breaks Dumb Rules, 112,
29. Jesus' Sermons Don't Put You to Sleep, 117,
30. Jesus Is THE BOSS, 122,
31. Jesus Makes Debts Vanish — Poof, 125,
32. Jesus Likes Fiction, 128,
33. Jesus Tells the Best Stories, 132,
34. Jesus Doesn't Freak Out in Storms, 135,
35. Jesus Knocks Out Bad Stuff, 138,
36. Jesus Doesn't Always Choose to Rescue, 141,
37. Jesus Whips Up Lunch, 144,
38. Jesus Spits, 148,
39. Jesus Puts the Mag in Magnificent, 151,
40. Jesus Knows the One Big Thing, 154,
41. Jesus Says: Love Looks Like This, 158,
42. Jesus Loves You, Dude, 162,
43. Jesus Rides One Lucky Donkey, 166,
44. Jesus Washes Stinky Feet, 170,
45. Jesus Faces the Worst, 174,
46. Jesus Didn't Do It, 177,
47. Jesus Truly Died, 181,
48. Jesus Is Buried, 185,
49. Jesus Truly Lives, 188,
50. Jesus Heads for Home, 192,
51. Jesus' Story Continues Forever and Ever and Ever and Ever, 196,
52. Jesus Wins, 199,
About the Authors, 203,

What People are Saying About This

Max Lucado

“Oh, to be a kid again! If you’re looking for a book about Jesus that your kids will absolutely love to read, check out Kirby McCook and the Jesus Chronicles. Your kids will laugh and learn, and ultimately grow closer to the Savior. I highly recommend this book!”