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This book is the follow-up to respected pastor and author Alistair Begg’s children’s book C is for Christian: An A-Z Treasury of Who We Are in Christ. He writes that in this book he is going to tell the reader about the most remarkable person – Jesus – who ever lived, and he is going to use 26 words to do it. While 26 words are nowhere near enough to describe Him – there could never be enough words to sum up His greatness – hopefully the 26 words Begg has chosen will help the reader see how amazing He is and how exciting it is to know Him.
Each of the words start with a different letter of the alphabet, beginning with “Advocate”. Begg offers a one-page reflection that explains in more detail how Jesus fulfills each word. He also offers a Bible verse, a colorful illustration by Emma Skerrat (who also illustrated the first book) to aid learning and memory, thoughtful discussion questions, and a prayer—making this book both engaging and spiritually formative for children and families.
Click on ‘Continue reading’ for:
BOOK REVIEWS ~ More of this review…
BOOK NEWS ~ Links to Interesting Articles
BOOK CLUB ~What Is Wrong with the World? The Surprising, Hopeful Answer to the Question We Cannot Avoid by Tim Keller
I’M CURRENTLY READING….
Children can read the book themselves or they can use it with others in their family, enjoying reading and answering the questions and praying together.
Also, if you teach an elementary-age Sunday School class, J is for Jesus is perfect for helping young children come to know Jesus in a personal way by exploring one word that describes Him each week.
The author’s desire is that as the reader works through this book they will become more and more amazed by Jesus, and that they will want to live with Him as their Lord, Savior and Friend.
The book is recommended for ages 5-7.
- My Favorite Books of 2026 So Far. Tim Challies shares three books from the Christian market and three from the general market.
- Five Myths That Keep You From Reading The Institutes. Anthony Faggiano writes “The Institutes(by John Calvin) have a reputation for being long, technical, and forbidding, and reputations like that keep good books closed. Most of that reputation is built on things that are not true. Here are five myths that keep the book shut, and the truth that should get you to open it.”
- My Book Reviews. Enjoy nearly 600 of my book reviews on Goodreads. Read my recent review of Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith by JD Vance, and Pastoring for Monday: Help Your Congregation Integrate Faith and Work by Matt Rusten.
- Study, Savor and Share Scripture: Becoming What We Behold. My wife Tammy has published a book about HOW to study the Bible. The book is available on Amazon in both a Kindle and paperback edition. She writes “Maybe you have read the Bible but want to dig deeper and know God and know yourself better. Throughout the book I use the analogy of making a quilt to show how the Bible is telling one big story about what God is doing in the world through Christ. Quilting takes much patience and precision, just like studying the Bible, but the end result is well worth it.”
- Books in the Story of History. In this video, Albert Mohler discusses the role of books in the story of history in front of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Won’t you read along with us?
What Is Wrong with the World? The Surprising, Hopeful Answer to the Question We Cannot Avoid by Tim Keller
From the Amazon description:
“During his tenure as founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, Timothy Keller explained on a weekly basis how the Bible provides the most comprehensive and sophisticated response to the fundamental questions of life. In What Is Wrong with the World?, based on a series of teachings given at Redeemer, Keller answers the title’s pressing question by revealing that the only thing that can account for the world’s pain and chaos is what the Bible calls sin. This clear-eyed and ultimately hopeful book reveals how sin is not simply a “bad” thing we do but something much more subtle and complex, affecting our relationships, our thinking, and every aspect of our existence. And only when we recognize sin for what it is can we find the profound, life-transforming answer our souls long for.”
This week, we look at Chapter 5: Sin as Self-Righteousness. Here are a few helpful quotes from the chapter:
- The heart of sin is self-righteousness.
- If you feel like nothing after you lose something, it means that the thing you lost was your everything. It was your functional salvation.
- Through religion or irreligion, from obedience to disobedience, we all resist God as Savior and Lord. We all fall short and have to be saved strictly by grace.
- Despite our best efforts, our hearts will often be divided and full of something else we’re serving alongside God in the hopes that it will save us.
- God says to Jonah and us that if we understand who we are and what we’ve done and what we are now through the miraculous gospel of grace, we will never see people’s troubles as too vast to impede the grace of God.
- The more self-righteous we know ourselves to be, the less we actually are. The less self-righteous we think ourselves to be, the more we actually are.
- A Christian has to see their heart as a fountainhead of self-righteousness that flows forth all day, all the time.
- Self-righteousness is something we need to continually be aware of. Christians are to watch for it all the time, everywhere, at the root of everything—the problem underneath all the things we do. The more we see it, the less it controls us, while the less we see it, the more it controls us.
