Stephen Arterburn M. ED. - Kirby McCook and the Jesus Chronicles: A 12-Year-Olds Take on the Totally Unboring, Slightly Weird Stuff in the Bible, Including Fish Guts, Wrestling Moves, and Stinky Feet

Visit Tyndales website for kids at www.tyndale.com/kids.

TYNDALE is a registered trademark of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

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

Copyright 2019 by Marcus Brotherton and Stephen Arterburn. All rights reserved.

Illustrations by Damian Zain. All rights reserved. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Designed by Mark Anthony Lane II

Edited by Sarah Rubio

Published in association with the literary agency of WordServe Literary Group, www.wordserveliterary.com

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

For manufacturing information regarding this product, please call 1-800-323-9400.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Tyndale House Publishers at , or call 1-800-323-9400.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Arterburn, Stephen, date- author.

Title: Kirby McCook and the Jesus chronicles / Stephen Arterburn and Marcus Brotherton.

Description: Carol Stream, Illinois : Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2019.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018037389 | ISBN 9781496429773 (hc)

Subjects: LCSH: Jesus Christ Biography Juvenile literature. | Bible stories, English.

Classification: LCC BT302 .A78 2019 | DDC 232.9 dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018037389

ISBN 978-1-4964-2979-7 (ePub); ISBN 978-1-4964-2978-0 (Kindle); ISBN 978-1-4964-2980-3 (Apple)

Build: 2021-04-21 15:32:51 EPUB 3.0

Not to us, O L ORD , not to us, but to your name goes all the glory.

PSALM 115:1

I, Kirby, age 12, would like to thank all the moms and dads and others out there who buy this book and all the kids who read it.

Thank you, television and video games, for turning our brains into mush and for reminding kids everywhere that books are WAY BETTER because theyre like movies in our minds.

Thanks to Grandpa McCook and his library full of books from seriously brainy scholars, including Dr. Walter Kaiser, who wrote The Messiah in the Old Testament; Dr. Edmund Clowney, who wrote The Unfolding Mystery: Discovering Christ in the Old Testament; Dr. Robert Thomas and Dr. Stanley Gundry, who put together A Harmony of the Gospels; Dr. John Walvoord and Dr. Roy Zuck, who wrote The Bible Knowledge Commentary; Dr. Craig Keener, who wrote The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament; and lots more smart dudes.

Its been swell, Linda Howard and publishing team at Tyndale; thanks for taking a chance on a fun-loving kid.

Thank you to a guy with a lot of letters after his name, theological editor Matt Rogers, PhD, MDiv, MA, BA. And to our ultracool early readers Addy, Zach, Amie, D. L. Brotherton, and H. C. Jones. Special thanks to Solomon Arterburn, who suggested that a book like this would help others like him have fun learning about Truth.

To agent Greg Johnson at WordServe Literary thanks for your awesomeness.

Thank you, friends and family. You really know how to dance.

Thank you, Professor Waffles and Professor Bacon, for inventing the worlds most delicious foods.

Youll notice a lot about Jesus in the pages to come, even as we go through some Old Testament stories. Thats because this book is more than a simple retelling of the usual kid-friendly Bible stories.

Its a book that traces Jesus involvement through the whole larger Story.

We want kids to see Jesus as the main character of the entire Bible, and we want kids to watch Jesus walk through history right from the beginning.

Its important to note that were not primarily trying to teach morality with this book. We want to inspire kids to draw close to Jesus, to have a relationship with Jesus, and to live in light of Gods holiness, sovereignty, and grace.

Heres how this Bible storybook can help:

• Its comprehensive. This book looks at the life of Jesus from cover to cover, specifically helping readers see that Jesus has had an important place in Gods plan for redemption from the beginning of time.
• Its kid friendly and conversational in tone. This book is meant to be enjoyed by kids. Its fun and lively, humorous but never irreverent. It meets kids on their level, speaking their language and inviting great conversations.
• Its biblically and theologically whole. This book takes the whole canon of Scripture into consideration. For instance, when we tell the story of Creation, we also weave in corresponding portions of John 1, Colossians 1, Hebrews 1, and other sections of the New Testament.
• It roots and establishes a child in Jesus Christ. We want children to begin to see and think of themselves as in Christ. Think of this as an exhorting, identity-establishing book for children in the spirit of Colossians 2:6-7: Just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him.
• It represents a full picture of the character of God. In communicating the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Story of grace, we emphasize Gods love, holiness, and sovereignty. All three characteristics of God are important.

We pray that children and families everywhere would follow Jesus, that their lives would be transformed by him, and that ultimately they would join Jesus on his mission. Life is far too short to spend it in rebellion or willful disobedience against God.

Ultimately, we pray that our readers would grow in the grace and knowledge of God. We want them to understand the bigger picture of Jesus, and we pray they would walk closely with Jesus throughout their whole lives. Amen.

I could have no greater joy than to hear that my children are following the truth.

3 JOHN 1:4

Jimmy let out a sneeze louder than a motorbike with no muffler.

And we knew we were doomed.

We were sitting around in junior church that morning while the grown-ups were upstairs in big-people church. All twelve of us kids: Jimmy. Noah. Emma. Olivia. Mason. Felipe. Jayden. My sister Aggy. Aisha. Zuri-Claire. My brother Jo-Jo. And me, Kirby McCook.

The sneeze blasted out of Jimmys nose. Ka-blaz-a-blam! His sneeze-goop slammed onto the carpet wham! and sat there like a pile of steaming monkey barf.

Thats when our teacher, Mrs. Higgins, threw up her hands and said, Oh! I cant do this anymore! and walked out.

Jimmy wiped his nose on his shirtsleeve, elbowed Jayden in the guts, and said, Go see where shes going. So Jayden slunk out to follow Mrs. Higgins from a distance, and thats the last we saw of him for a good eleven minutes till he came back and said, Guys shes gone.