5 Inspire Bible Ideas

Congratulations to our Inspire Bible give away winner: Rachel Reamer and our runner up DeAnna Hill. Now  let's open up our Bibles together and study! Here's a post to get us started. 

The Bible

God's Word 2 Timothy 3:16

The Truth John 17:17

The Inspire Bible, like all Bibles,  is God's Word. It holds the truth of how we are to live. 

It teaches us, trains us, encourages us and equips us. 

This is why we love the Word of God.

The Inspire Bible offers you and I the opportunity to engage with scripture in a unique, meaningful way. I want to encourage you to consider these five ways to use your Inspire Bible. 

 You can share your ideas and thoughts on our FB page 

or comment below! I'd especially love to see what you create as a result of your time with the Lord. 

 Our FB Page

Inspire Bible Scripture Lesson

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

Creating an heirloom from your "art"

Few people know I have a degree in English Literature. During my undergrad years, I fell in love with Shakespeare, Wadsworth, Whitman and Dickinson. Yet, of all the famous literary figures, Emily Dickinson is the poet who most captured my attention and imagination. 

Emily's somewhat solitary life is folded up with the warm ideals of hearth, home and wandering over hills in the afternoon. It's said she kept many active correspondences and often enclosed poetry with her letters. She even hand bound forty volumes of her nearly 1,800 poems. She actually made them out of stationary paper that she folded and stitched together.

I love that. Even though she was not famous during her lifetime, she valued her own work enough to document it. This idea has inspired me. What will my children and grandchildren know of me? Yes, they may eventually own one of my three bibles with notes in the margins and drawings throughout.

But what about the other things I love like recipes and poetry and drawings? I guess, I could hope they'd find my FB files someday. But, I've decided to compile as many of these precious things into a notebook as possible.  I'm pretty sure no one will find them and try to sell them on ebay like Emily's  manuscript books  But, I do hope they will become a treasure of memories and thoughts for the next few generations. 

So here's where i've started. I bought a spiral bound multi-media book of paper. Multi-media just means you can use watercolor, pens or colored pencils. I've started with simply creating pages of my favorite birds and flowers. I plan on adding a favorite scripture verse or one of my original poems to some of the pages. 

One of my poems is inspired by Emily Dickinson's entitled HOPE.

Here is Emily's original poem: 

"Hope" is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul

And sings the tune without the words

And never stops - at all

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm

I've heard it in the chillest land

And on the strangest Sea 

Yet, never, in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of ME.

So, I'll keep you posted on this little project, though I suspect it will be lifelong. In the meantime, share your ideas about documenting your "art" how will you create an heirloom for the next generation of your family? Share below. I'd love to hear from you!

WHEN I COLOUR

When I colour, I ponder

I ponder

 Easing through the door of creativity

My heart slows

 My thoughts turn towards God

We sit

talking and sharing

He listens through the colours

He speaks into the silence

I hear

I smile

I colour

-Joleen

Ready to ponder? www.colormecards.moonfruit.com

Is coloring in your bible okay?

When I was a little girl the thought of drawing, marking or even letting a crayon come close to a Bible was taboo. Of course delicately scrawled notes in the margins were okay as long as they were in pencil.  But coloring? Full on drawing in your Bible would have brought gasps and scoldings about the importance of respecting this sacred book.

My journey into this previously frowned upon behavior started with the inductive Bible study method. My artistic soul grasped the pencil and began highlighting with gusto! 

Suddenly, I found myself pouring over scripture, gleefully working to "correctly handle the word of truth". 2 Timothy 2:15 Before long, I was teaching others to do the same. 

Yet, I will admit to feeling somewhat reluctant to bring that colorfully marked up Bible to church lest, it meet with disapproving glances. I also saved doodling or drawing for pieces of paper. The thought of actually drawing in my Bible still seemed a bit sacrilegious. 

But then I saw this new Bible by Tyndale Publishers called the Inspire Bible.  My reaction? This!

I know, my ancestors would have a few words to say about turning the Word of God into some sort of party in a box! But, my heart lept at the thought of coloring, really coloring in my bible!

So I entered the contest to win one! I was so excited when I got a instagram message from Tyndale saying they liked my picture and would be sending me my very own Inspire Bible. 

Every once in awhile my traditional roots whisper, "Are you sure this is okay?" My response is this. If drawing in my Bible causes me to open it, read it, ponder it, and spend time talking to God then a little or a lot of coloring is a good thing. 

So here's what I've decided about coloring in your bible. 

#1. It's okay

#2. It's okay

#3. IT"S OKAY!

What do you think? Let's chat.