I love my new
Inspire Bible by
Tyndale Publishers. The artistic opportunities presented by this revolutionary presentation of God's word catapulted me into a month of blissful creativity. I began to color and glue and paint and draw without giving much thought to the life giving text beneath my fingers.
Then my friend,
Laurie Yost, sent me a picture of a beautiful church near her. I loved it so much that I asked her what verse I could put on it. She replied, "Psalm 37:7." Together we created the beautiful picture below.
As I pondered this captivating image, my heart ached strangely.
I long for the closeness and serenity with God that this scene imparts.
I looked at my new Bible. It sat open to Psalm 37. All of my inductive Bible study method training kicked in. What if I studied this passage inductively and added the art as I studied?
Instead of the art inspiring me to think about the scripture, I could let the scripture inspire the art!
I feel like putting that last sentence in all caps. But, I think you get the impact this made on my heart. So that is what happened this morning.
1. I spent time reading the passage and observing the text.
2. I asked myself the 5W's and an H (Who, What, When, Where, Why and How).
3. I studied the context and other passages that helped me to interpret what I was reading.
4. Finally, I asked the Lord to show me how to apply these truths to my life.
If you are interested in studying with me, I encourage you to join either our
2 Timothy or
Philippians course on this blog. We are on day 14 of Philippians. I will start using my Inspire bible a bit more with those lessons. It really is an awesome resource.
Here's a few pictures to show the creative process that followed my study. You are welcome to print the church picture at the end of this post and use it in your bible.
Note: I put the key commands and their vs. in the left hand column.
I drew the church first and sketched in the trees.
I love Prisma color markers. Here I'm using a subtle grey as the base color for my church.
I use a combination of colored pencils and Prisma color markers when I draw. I'm not very scrap booky in my approach this time. I just really wanted to let the text speak on this one.
Don't be afraid to draw right over the words. As long as you don't use dark colors you should still be able to read the text.
Now, I'll show you a simple approach for the other page.
I simply printed the church picture and wrote verse 7 out in the NLT version.
I adhered the picture using cream colored masking tape. It gave a nice clean appearance. Then I used my Prisma color pen to give a base color over the verse.
Colored pencils brought out the words in the verse.
If you are longing to let Scripture inspire your art and your heart come back next week as I hope to give one of you your very own Inspire Bible.
Under the same wing,
-Joleen
