Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Bible Journaling - Part Two

(Click here to read Part One)

I belong to a Facebook group called, Journaling Bible Community, and on that page I have read many a post where the person posted their pictures of journaling in their Bibles only to have someone comment something very mean about them writing and/or drawing in their Bible. Unfortunately this makes the person question what they are doing. Why would you question the way someone praises our Savior?

As far back as I can remember I've been taking notes in my Bible. I will write a thought I might have while hearing a sermon. I will write a corresponding scripture. I may write down a quote that relates to a particular scripture. I will write what I have discovered anew. And of course, I underline the scriptures.

In making these pieces of paper bound in a book cover more important than what is written on those pieces of paper, you have put your worship more in the book itself than Who it is that is being written about.

In the scripture where the woman poured expensive perfume upon Jesus' head (Matthew 26:6-11) the disciples were upset that she would waste the perfume and not sell it to feed the poor. Jesus asked them why they were bothering her and not seeing her worship. They held the money higher than her worship. There was worship, honor and praise in her action.

Sometimes you just want to express your love for the words that are God breathed. If someone is using their words, their thoughts, their creativity for the Lord, who are we to stop them? Remember that in Luke 19:40 Jesus said "If they keep quiet the stones will cry out!"

Maybe this is our way of letting our pencils and pens, our highlighters, our paints, and even our stickers, all the things we use in this creative process -- we let them all cry out in praise to the Lord.

So the next time you place a mark, an underline, a note, or even draw or paint a picture, remember this is your praise to the King of Kings!

The Bible that I use right now, the one that I take to church with me, used to belong to my mother-in-law. You can see in the picture below, that she too took notes in her Bible. She too praised her Lord through her notes and I love reading her thoughts.

I hope this helps anyone who has been nervous about Bible Journaling. Don't do it for others, do it for yourself!

Love from the Preacher and I



Friday, March 11, 2016

Bible Journaling - Part One

I was hoping to post something last week but among my usual work and house routine, I added the chore of getting our taxes ready. I think it took two days to get everything done. So needless to say, some things got put on the back burner.

This week I decided to keep it simple and post some of my latest Bible journaling. (If you missed my last post you can click HERE to see my other pages.) 



The Preacher is preaching a series of sermons on "I Am" where Jesus calls himself the I Am in 8 different passages in John. John 8:58


This is from one of the Preacher's sermons where Jesus says "I Am the Light". I loved the image of Jesus kneeling before the "woman caught in adultery". I found the image through Google images and tried to trace it but it didn't work out very well, so I had to fill in the places I couldn't see through my phone's light box app. John 8:1-30


This is from a sermon the Preacher did some time ago. This saying is a quote from the Preacher from that sermon. Again,some tracing done here. Luke 19:31-34
I found a version of this on Pinterest and decided I needed to include it in my Bible.Psalm 52:8 I didn't 'cheat' on this, I free-hand drew the tree.


This is a picture of my mother-in-law, Joan Smith. While going through some old photos, I found this picture of her petting a cow. Her dad had livestock on his farm, but I'm not sure if this was their cow or if she just stopped along a road just to pet this cow. I could see her doing just that.
I knew I wanted to use it in my Bible and knew exactly what verse to put it with. Psalm 50:16. I printed it on Avery's Clear Full Sheet Label, cut it to size and adhered it to the page after painting the page with acrylic paint.


I hope you have enjoyed looking at my pages. If you are interested in praising our Lord through this art form, you can find many more examples and how to's by looking at YouTube videos and checking on Pinterest.

Hopefully I will be able to post Part Two of this post next week. I'd like to comment about some of the negativity some have gotten over doing this art form in their Bibles.

So until next time...
...love from the Preacher and I


one last blanket

  This little baby blanket has a story behind it. My mother is in a nursing home due to a severe stroke that weakened her legs and her hands...