How to Use the 100 Bible Stories Effectively
EACH STORY CONTAINS:
• MAIN CONTENT:
1- to 2-page stories straight from the Bible.
This is the most important feature of these stories –
The reader is meeting Creator God and Jesus through God's Word.
Everything else is secondary to the impact of God's Spirit speaking through his Word.
They are paraphrased from the actual words of the Bible in fairly simple English –
so they are not just a retelling of the Bible story in someone's words.
They are written with non-native English speakers in mind –
But appropriate for native English-speaking children from about elementary school age on up.
They are specially designed for people new to the Bible –
but helpful for anyone wanting to get an overview of the whole Bible.
They give the main story-line of the whole Bible.
They tell the story starting with Jesus and going from Genesis to Revelation.
And they make clear the main spiritual message that runs through 1000s of years of stories in the Bible.
The Bible was written over about 1500 years in several different countries by about 40 authors.
The main point of all these stories is very difficult to grasp by new readers.
So these Bible Stories with the Content Questions & Discussion Questions are designed to make clear the Bible's overall meaning.
Length:
The stories can be read by a native English speaker at moderate to slow speed in 3-6 minutes.
A non-native English speaker may take significantly more time, depending on the person.
Adding the Content Questions and Discussion Questions generally take an additional 20-40 minutes –
depending on the readers' English ability and the pace of the discussion.
Some stories have significant Discussion Questions and additional Bible passages that may be covered best in more than one session.
Look Deeper stories.
They have 2 purposes:
• The main purpose is for people who (from reading the Bible stories) have come to believe in Jesus.
The Look Deeper stories help them grow in their relationship with Jesus –
and help them understand the Bible more deeply.
• The secondary purpose is to show people, who are thinking about believing in Jesus, what a relationship with Jesus is like –
to let them know what it will mean to be a follower of Jesus.
So, before using them, the leader should decide whether the Look Deeper stories are helpful for their group.
• OPTIONAL CONTENT:
Review (of previous story):
The purpose of the Review section is to refresh the memory of readers.
If review is unnecessary, it can be skipped to save time.
Content Questions & Discussion Questions.
These Questions are, of course, not required –
but are provided for the discussion leader's convenience.
But they are specifically designed to make clear the main meaning of the entire Bible.
With minimal or no preparation, a leader can lead 1-on-1 or group discussions using the:
Content Questions: That make sure that the content of the story is being understand.
Discussion Questions: That encourage deeper thought about important issues.
Individual readers can also use the questions on their own.
It is best to ask the Content Questions as the Bible Story is being read.
This ensures that non-native English speakers are understanding the story as it goes along.
Alternatively, the leader can ask their own content questions as the group reads along.
Asking content questions is important, because –
If readers miss a detail at the beginning of a story, the rest of the story may make no sense to them.
The Discussion Questions can be asked during or after reading the story –
depending on which fits the overall flow of the Bible time.
There is a lot of flexibility in asking questions:
If desired, a leader can:
• Add their own questions as seems appropriate for their group –
and skip those questions that seem unnecessary.
• Completely re-plan the discussion time to best fit the needs of their group.
Again, it is reading the Bible, itself, that is the key benefit of theses stories.
But the Content Questions and Discussion Questions are hopefully a big help in making sense of the long story of the Bible.
It is the Holy Spirit's job to lead someone to believe:
So the Bible Stories, themselves, continually bring up the importance of believing in God and Jesus.
But the Discussion Questions do not directly ask: Do you believe this?
This is intentional.
The questions are not designed to pressure someone for a decision to believe.
The questions are designed to encourage deeper thinking about Creator God and Jesus –
and to understand how much God loves us and what he expects of us.
The stories let people meet Jesus and Creator God over time, at their own pace –
in a natural process like getting to know a new friend –
or like getting to know someone you may eventually marry.
This seems to be the best long-term approach –
and it also takes a lot of pressure off the leader.
Story after story, God's Spirit uses God's Word to speak for himself and draw people to Jesus!
The stories, themselves, clearly raise the question of whether one believes or not –
without the leader feeling pressure to do so directly.
The leader is like a waiter at a restaurant that customers come back to regularly.
The waiter serves the food –
and interacts with the customers in a way that seems appropriate for each customer.
The Holy Spirit is the one who uses God's Word to draw them to Christ and gives them faith to believe.
AN ENGLISH-JAPANESE VOCABULARY LIST (in the English + Japanese Vocabulary version).
The blue, English words in the stories are translated into Japanese in the vocabulary list.
The vocabulary list is designed for readers from beginning level to more advanced English levels.
So some of the blue words are very basic.
A LINK TO THE STORY IN THE JAPANESE BIBLE.
The version linked to is the Japanese Contemporary Bible (Living Bible) –
which is somewhat loosely translated (paraphrased) but fairly easy to understand in Japanese.
Note:
For Japanese unfamiliar with the Bible, more precise translations of the Bible into Japanese can be significantly more difficult to understand without an explanation.
THE STORIES ARE DIVIDED INTO THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES:
• Jesus – 18 stories (primarily from the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the New Testament.)
Read the stories about Jesus first:
This is highly recommended (though of course not required).
Because:
• The stories about Jesus help in understanding all the other stories –
Jesus is the main thread through the whole Bible.
• The other stories often refer back to what Jesus did for us.
• The stories about Jesus tend to be shorter and simpler than the later stories.
So they are a good place to start for ESL students or young children.
• What Jesus' Followers Did – after Jesus returned to heaven – 12 stories (from Acts)
• Creator God Makes Heaven & Earth – why our world is the way it is – 7 stories (from Genesis)
• Creator God's Plan to Save the World – 45 stories (the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi)
• Ruth – 6 stories (a foreign woman chooses Creator God)
• Daniel – 5 stories (a young Jewish man chooses to follow Creator God in a foreign country)
• Revelation – 7 stories (what will eternal life be like from Revelation and other parts of the Bible)