The Story that Matters (English)

I am a huge proponent of The Stranger, been using it for discipleship and evangelism for nearly 10 years. When I was looking for an evangelistic booklet I turned to this one. Come to find out there is confusing language regarding the nature of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. On page 32 Cross writes that "Yahweh was born into an ordinary family. His mother's name was Mary and her husband's name was Joseph. Although the family was ordinary, the baby was not. He was holy–one of a kind! The baby was God himself." I try to avoid gnat-straining, but the virgin birth is a cardinal doctrine and I wish there was an explicit mention of it. I know that John Cross and the publishing team believes in the virgin birth as well, which makes this omission quite curious. ------------------- Hi Tyler, Thank you for the question. Below is a response from the book's author: Question: Why do some of your books not mention the Virgin birth of Jesus? Answer: The gospel of John was specifically written so unbelievers would know how to come to Christ. And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. John 21:30-31 NKJV If John included a topic in his gospel message, we tried to do that in our books as well, along with the Old Testament background passages. But if John did not include it, then we did not feel constrained to do so either. Neither the gospel of John nor the gospel of Mark include the Virgin birth in their pages. For this and the below reasons neither did we in the following products. • The Lamb was written for children. To explain to young children the concept of a virgin is no easy thing and would distract from the balance of time spent on the life of Christ as a whole, which is quite minimal. • The Story that Matters and What are Christmas and Easter All About? were booklets written in EasyEnglish. Though written for adults as well as children, to express the concept of a virgin in EasyEnglish would create uncomfortable specifics when reading it to young children. For all ages it would raise questions that take time to explain and would once again throw the story out of balance. These three above products are presentations of the Creation to Christ message using as few words as possible. This is a daunting task as you must ponder what can be left out and what must be put in. As in all the GoodSeed tools, we used the gospel of John as our master guide. Books in question: • The Lamb • The Story that Matters • What are Christmas and Easter All About?

I really like this product for evangelism. It is superior to a tract because it puts all the necessary doctrine in its historical context and is clear in its presentation of the gospel. The easy English in which it is written is great for evangelizing people with English as a 2nd language. I have a Korean friend who was Buddhist and trying to learn English better, so I gave him a copy. It opened many opportunities to share my faith with him. After reading it daily for several months, he has become a believer. I give these away individually or in bulk. Two Christian brothers like to witness to homeless people and I provide them with these for their witnessing. Thanks GoodSeed for a great product.

We much prefer the "What Christmas and Easter Are All About" version, but since it isn't available anymore, this is a not a bad second choice. It doesn't have the colorful pictures like the other version, just black ink sketches.

I teach a Conversational English Class for International wives, and I have been looking for something simple to understand because of the vocabulary used, something that is not too long and that gives an overview of God's plan for His world and of salvation. The ladies have little, if any, understanding of the Bible. We have just started reading The Story, and I am so excited to see how the ladies understand and respond to it.

So often we have felt that people without a Christian background have a difficult time putting a sermon or a salvation booklet into the context of "the whole story". This book assumes nothing--it starts from the beginning and gives a complete picture of God, His Son Jesus, and our need to be rescued by Him so that we can have a right relationship with God for now and eternity. When first introduced to the book we bought a couple of cases with the intention of passing them on to our church to include in our visitor packets; however, we decided to keep some for ourselves and family to have on hand to share with seeking people whom God places in our path--we have had opportunities present themselves in the past when we wished we had a tool to enable those with no church background to understand why we need salvation and how someone else's death exonerates us. This book does exactly that. The book makes the salvation story simple by using basic vocabulary and concepts. Its simplicity is its purpose. It is not intended to be sophisticated.

We purchased these booklets for our church outreach program prior to our Christmas concert and included them as part of an invitation/gift for our neighbours. For a small booklet it is actually quite a lengthy read, but not a difficult one, with simple, straightforward language and no confusing terminology. On top of that a glossary in the back gives clarification to any words that may be less familiar for some readers. It is probably the most comprehensive overview of the Bible I have ever read in so few pages. There are questions and answers in the back for further review, giving people an opportunity to ask themselves what they truly believe. Also included is a section of Scripture references that coincide with all the pages of the book. The Gospel and our need for it is clearly presented. The only concern I have is that a great emphasis is placed on salvation leading to a perfect life in heaven, but little is mentioned about how this saving grace also results in real change in our lives here and now.