In the last decade or so, I have found several Bible verses that seemed to have very deep meaning for me. I think of them as my "philosophy of life." In February of 2020 my church installed a new pastor. A couple of weeks later COVID hit. I was very fortunate in that we were able to quickly pivot to an online service, so that we only missed one Sunday due to the lockdown. Once things settled down so that we could have Bible Study again, I started going. I had not attended Bible Study in years, but decided to give it a try with our new Pastor.
I found I really enjoyed his methods and insight. We would read the verses and he would ask us a lot of questions. He would also explain the background situations. These were not purchased Bible Study series, but a discussion on one of the readings for the day, usually the Epistle. There were many references to other verses as well. Sometimes, he would share with us a key Hebrew or Greek word used in a particular verse and its meaning. We would also read in several translations (NIV, ESV, King James) and compare.
It was about this time that I thought I would like to delve more deeply into my special verses, but I didn't really know how... however, an online search never hurt!
Journaling
I did know that I wanted to keep a journal. I'm not the greatest with journaling, much like blogging, but writing down what I learn would be good for memory and future reference. Obviously being able to write on a computer and print would be useful. I do have a three-ring binder hole punch, but I also have a punch for disk binders. I'm particularly fond of the 5.5x8 inch binders but have recently discovered the 7x9.25 size. I wanted to combine my journal with my calendar. You can also find paper online in just about any size!
I started looking for pre-printed (or PDF) tools for journaling and studying my chosen verses.
Verse Mapping
In 2022, I stumbled upon "Verse Mapping" which seemed perfect for what I was wanting to do. I was especially intrigued by this site:
I really liked that it came with a template that I could print and add to my journal. But the more I looked at it, I realized I didn't have access to things like Hebrew and Greek dictionaries, especially since they use totally different alphabets that I didn't know. [Update: Having written this previously, I realized that I hadn't searched properly online. I searched for "interlineal Hebrew and Greek Bibles" and found two. I have bookmarked them both as they work differently.]
Additionally, while there were some elements I really liked, some didn't quite work for me and there were other tings I wanted to include. SO... I fell back on one of my best traits: Procrastination!
Visual Faith
In Spring 2023, I attended a retreat for my Ladies Group at church. The theme for the retreat was "Prayer." We had a presentation and workshop on Visual Journaling. This was focused on Prayer Journaling as well as self-illustration of Bible Verses. The presentation was around materials from the Visual Faith Ministry: www.visualfaithmin.org.
I'm creative, but feel self conscious about drawing (my mother was a great painter). On the other hand, I liked the idea of adding artwork and I have played with calligraphy in the past. In addition, I knew I needed to include a prayer list. Visual Faith provided artistic prayer lists to help you remember all the folks you wanted to pray for. I put together a journal ... and used it for a few weeks.
However, another presenter at the retreat talked about a great book on prayer and gave us the information which sent me to our denomination's publishing store: Concordia Publishing House.
I bought that book and several others, which I didn't necessarily read. One of them was "Ten Questions to ask Every Time You Read the Bible" by Andrew Jones. Last month, I drove a friend to physical therapy several times. I remembered this particular book and decided to read it while I was waiting.
THAT will be the topic of my next blog post.
Until next time,
Stormy
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