Once Upon a World , livre ebook

Andrews UK - Robert Duncan

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95 pages

English

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"On the first day the world had ever known, God had a busy week in front of Him..."So begins Once Upon A World, a delightful series of Bible stories for children. With stories selected from the Old and New Testaments, the fresh clear style of writer and illustrator Robert Duncan gives this eBook a widespread appeal. Once Upon A World presents a happy combination of faith and humour that will appeal to families both remote from and close to the Christian faith.

Informations

Publié par	Andrews UK
Date de parution	23 novembre 2011
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781906577414
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0150€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Title Page

ONCE UPON A WORLD

Written and Illustrated by
Robert Duncan

Publisher Information

First published in 2011 by
B7 Enterprises Limited

Digital Edition converted and published by
Andrews UK Limited

Copyright © 2011 Robert Duncan
The author has asserted his moral rights

All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that no part of this book is to be reproduced, in any shape or form. Or by way of trade, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser, without prior permission of the copyright holder.

Quote

“On the first day the world had ever known God had a busy week in front of Him ...”

***

THE OLD TESTAMENT

The Creation

On the first day the world had ever known, God had a busy week in front of him. He said, ‘We will have light and darkness, and I will call the light day, and the dark part night.’ It all happened just as he said.
On the second day God decided there should be lots of sky all round the world. He called the sky Heaven. The next day he made all the land, and all the seas. He said that grass and plants and fruit would grow on the land.
On Thursday God worked a bit more on the light and darkness. He put finishing touches to it and threw in lots of stars. He was very pleased with what he had done.
The fifth day was very important for God. He made all the birds, and all the fishes. ‘Have lots of children,’ he told them. That’s why there are so many birds in the sky and fishes in the sea.
He had to sleep, and the next morning he said, ‘Today I shall make all the animals for the land, and if I have time I shall make a man, and he can be just like me.’ He thought that was a very good idea.

By this time it was the world’s seventh day - Sunday. God was very tired, he had worked hard for six whole days.
‘I shall make this my day of rest,’ he said.
And that’s why we’re all a bit lazy on Sundays.

***

Adam and Eve

When God had rested for a while, he got down to making the most beautiful garden. He called it the Garden of Eden. It had wonderful trees, and flowers. It even had lots of birds and animals in it. Whatever your favourite animal is, it was there.

God put the man he had made into the garden. The man rubbed his eyes and looked all round. God said to him, ‘Now listen, Adam (that was the man’s name) you can eat the fruit, climb the trees, paddle in the rivers and jump over the bushes, but there’s one thing you must never do. You must never eat the apples from the big tree in the middle of the garden because that tree tells you what is good and what is bad.’
Adam said, ‘What’s bad?’
‘Never mind,’ said God, ‘you go and have a nice time, and forget about that tree.’
God peeped out of the sky quite often to see how Adam was getting on, and soon he realised - Adam was lonely. God thought, ‘he hasn’t got any friends, no one to talk to - he will become unhappy soon.’

So one night, when Adam was asleep, God made a woman to be a friend for him. He called her Eve.
Adam and Eve got on very well together. They used to play with the animals, and eat lots of fruit from all the trees. Except one - the forbidden tree.
One day they decided to walk to the middle of the garden, and there was the most beautiful apple hanging from this special tree.
There was also a big nasty snake in the tree, who said, ‘Hey, why don’t you two eat that apple, it’s the nicest, biggest, juiciest apple I ever saw.’ Adam looked worried. ‘We’re not allowed to, God said so.’
Oh, don’t worry about that,’ said the horrible snake. ‘Have a bite, go on.’
Adam looked at Eve, and Eve looked at Adam, and the apple looked lovely. Eve tasted the apple.
‘Go on, try it,’ she said. Adam had a bite, and at once felt ashamed because he hadn’t any clothes on.
It just happened that God was walking in the garden that day, and when Adam and Eve heard him coming up the path, they ran to hide.
God was very angry when he found them. ‘You have eaten the fruit, haven’t you?’ he demanded. Adam said they had, but explained that the snake said it would be all right.
God told the snake that he was going to be the nastiest animal in the world, and he told Adam and Eve that now they would know everything about good and bad, for what good it would do them, and he turned them out of the garden of Eden and said they must look after themselves.

There was a great storm, and God went back to Heaven, leaving a flaming sword to make sure nobody touched the tree again.

***

Noah’s Ark

Adam and Eve had sons, and their sons had sons, and the sons of the sons had sons. By that time there were lots of people on the world. God sat back and watched them. He saw them hurting each other, being selfish, and not thinking about him very much.
But God saw Noah, who was a very good man, and said, ‘I like Noah, but I don’t like the others much.’
The world had not turned out quite as well as he had hoped, so he decided to have a great storm, which would cause a flood, so he could start again. The flood would soon get rid of all the bad men, animals and everything that lived.
Before God started the storm he told Noah how to build a great boat - the art. He told him how long it should be, how many rooms it should have, and how many windows and doors.
God said, ‘Now listen, Noah, when your ark is finished, I want you to get two of every animal, two of every bird, and all the insects and bugs you can lay your hands on. Then get your wife, your sons, and their wives, and put the whole lot in the ark. Right?’
Noah said he would do it, and the ark was built. Just as the last nails were hammered in, the sky went black and the lightning started flashing. God had turned on the storm.
‘Quick,’ shouted Noah, ‘everybody in. No pushing, you lions. Hurry up at the back, tortoises.’
Just in time, the door was shut and locked. For nearly six weeks it rained and rained and rained. All the ground was covered with water, and even the trees and mountains were covered.
But the ark sailed on. It bounced up and down a bit in the rough sea, but all the animals, all the birds, all the family, even old Noah, were safe and happy inside.
After a while the rain stopped banging on the roof, and sunlight started to shine through the cracks in the door and windows. Noah knew it was time to find out if the water had gone down.
He thought, ‘If I send out one of the doves it will soon tell me if there is any land showing yet.’

***

So that day, nearly a year after the ark had started its journey, Noah opened the window and the dove flew out into the clear blue sky. Noah looked round. He certainly couldn’t see any land, just sea, sea, sea. (As far as he could see.) The dove came back looking a bit fed up. ‘No good,’ it said.

A week later, Noah sent out the dove again. This time it came flying back, proudly carrying an olive twig in its beak.
That told Noah the water had gone down enough for some land to appear, so he left it a few days and then opened the door of the ark. Al the animals ran out on to the dry land; the horse prancing about, the kangaroos jumping up and down, and the lions growling happily.
They all thanked Noah for the lift, and went on their way.
God spoke to Noah. He said, ‘ I promise I won’t flood the world again. Go now, and let all your children and grandchildren make the world a really nice place to live in.’
God went away again, leaving a lovely rainbow to show that he was going to keep his promise.

***

All About Jacob

Hundreds of years later, after Noah’s family had grown old, and all sorts of things had happened, Jacob and his brother Esau were born. They were twins, but they didn’t look alike. Esau grew up to be very strong and hairy, while Jacob was a bit small and plain. Esau used to be outside all the time, looking after sheep and digging holes. Jacob would sit in his tent all day.
One day Jacob was cooking some soup and Esau came staggering up the path. ‘I’m starving, is that soup?’ he said. Jacob said it was. Then he said, ‘ I will only give you some if you let me have everything that belongs to father after he dies.’ Well Esau really was hungry, and the soup looked lovely, so he agreed. ‘Promise?’ said Jacob, and Esau promised.
A few years later, their father was getting very old and he couldn’t see very well. He had always liked Esau a bit more than Jacob, so one day he called Esau and said, ‘Go and make me some supper, you know how I like your cooking.’ His mother was listening outside the door, and as Esau went out, she called Jacob. Now she liked Jacob better than Esau, so she told him to go and cook some supper for his father.
‘He’ll think it’s Esau,’ she said. ‘He can’t see very well and he might say you can have all the things he owns.’
‘No chance,’ Jacob replied. ‘Esau’s all big and hairy, and I’m all small and smooth. If he touches me he will know the difference.’
So do you know what Jacob’s mother did?
She stuck some fur to his arms and back, and said, ‘That will fool him. You’re all hairy now.’
Jacob looked a bit worried, but he thought, ‘