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| This is my Bible. Inspiration courtesy of genius on Tumblr. |
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Anyway. I am a print Bible reading sort of person, so I watched from the sidelines as these brave and careless people began writing, doodling, coloring, and doing all sorts of artsy things within the pages of their holy book. I wanted to dive in to this particular Bible weirdness, but I was raised Baptist. (Baptists don't dance, don't drink, and certainly don't color in their adult Bibles.) But then one day, I could stand it no longer. I have a study Bible that I would never draw in, but I have another that was a gift... more for casual reading. I picked up some colored pencils and began sketching something similar to a picture I saw on Tumblr.
It was freeing. Like, kid drawing on the wall with nail polish, kind of freeing. It felt so rebellious and yet again, so right. Instantly, I was converted.
Do you read the Bible? Do you ever write (journal, color, go crazy) in yours? This fall, I feel a renewed inspiration to spend time with my Bible, specifically in Genesis, Psalms, Daniel, Ezekiel and Revelations. I see much drama coming forth from- and on- these thin, delicate pages.
Speaking of thin and delicate, I picked up a few supplies to go with my underlining/highlighting/doodling/writing in the Bible phase. It should be noted that you can't begin "personalizing" your Bible with just any old rough, heavy pens and markers. So far, these color pencils are fantastic. Ditto for these no-bleed-through Bible highlighters. And don't try this for yourself without getting a hold of Micron's Bible Study Kit. What? I write with them for everything now. Love Micron pens.
Are you in on this Bible journaling and art thing? Would you rather walk the center aisle naked before you'd ever draw in your Bible? Tell me about it and we'll discuss.
Happy Friday and weekend! -Brin
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13 comments:
This is funny! I took a Bible study course from a Baptist who taught us the reverence with which they handle their Bibles. I had not been aware of this. I highlighted and underlined my Bibles as a young Christian but now it seems redundant since it's the same passages I keep highlighting in every Bible. I'm obsessed with the Bible, as it IS God's Word so I want to attention to what He's saying. Our senior pastor challenged us a few years ago to read through the Bible every year, and I've been doing that. It's a great system--every day you read a snippet of a Gospel, and some chapters in the O.T., then a Psalm. When Psalms are done you start reading the rest of the N.T.
Previously I'd just read straight through the Bible, then I used to start with the N.T. because the O.T. is so hard to get through! Right now I'm reading an old Catholic Bible. I was raised Roman Catholic (now Evangelical Protestant) and want to see what the difference is.
Have fun with your coloring the Bible project! You're into some very heavy Books. We just started Daniel last Sunday in my Bible Study class. My teacher is incredible - a religious history professor who also went to seminary and can read ancient languages pretty well. He felt God telling him to study Daniel due to the times in which we are now living.
Love this! I joined a couple facebook bible journaling groups and have been watching youtube videos for a couple months! My journaling bible is due to arrive on Monday. I am so excited to begin.
No I won't be drawing pictures in my Bibles over the printed words, although I have a few stickers placed where they don't cover the words. Suppose one can have more than one Bible in our homes to where if you wanted to scribble all over the words you can and then when wanting to actually see for yourself the printed words check out a different Bible. After understanding that we are living in a time where the ecumenical movement is alive, I no longer read newer translations than the King James. The NIV Bible alone has left out 16 verses. The newer versions are known as the new world order bibles which encourage to doubt God and that you don't have to be born again to have salvation. I am not Baptist, but a born again Christian. Jesus is the sweetest name I know....not sure why you'd want to scratch His name out with your doodles.
I've always marked in my Bible. Not drawn pictures, but used markers to highlight, written little notes and references in the margins, and even have sticky notes on some pages. I'm not sure I could bring myself to actually draw a picture across the pages of my Bible, but my Bible is definitely a "working" Bible, with notes and markings and such. On first thought, I don't really feel there is anything wrong at all with graphics that portray the words or stories, but I'm not talented enough to do it and it look ok. I posted on your FB post about what my now 30 year old did when he was about 3 years old, marking in my Bible after watching me do my Bible study. I really treasure the coloring he did on those pages.
I've underlined verses in my KJV Bibles for years, write notes and dates in the margins, but to draw and mark over the words so that you can't read them, what is the point? Something about that bothers me. Just my opinion ~ FlowerLady
No, I would never doodle or journal in my or any Bible. I do underline and highlight and read aloud to my family sometimes. I also was brought up Baptist, Southern Baptist. I do not find fault in others that do, it is just not for me. I am not against finding an old book to transform, I think the end results can be very beautiful. I want to create junk journals.
I wouldn't do it myself, any more than I would in any other book I love, but I don't see anything wrong with it. I probably would if I could draw at all! I have never seen one in person that obscured the words.
Most of the ones I have seen are done by people who are very artistic and I feel like if they are moved to decorate their Bible in a way that makes them happy, then good for them. It's a gift God Himself gave them, and many artists can't hold back when something moves them like that. That's how they express joy and other deep emotion.
I have zero artistic talent, but I love to sing and music brings me great joy. I often find myself putting melodies to verses as I read them. I sing, others sketch, some may dance!
And the Lord God loves us all.
I did think about this some more last night as I was laying in bed. I don't see anything wrong with drawing in the wide margins like I saw when I went to you-tube to check this artistic phase out. It was the covering up of the scripture so that you couldn't read it that bothered me.
I also wondered if these Bibles weren't created for writing more of our thoughts and prayers because margins in older Bibles are so small. I just googled it and that's what it looks like. People have just taken 'journaling' farther with their artistic endeavors.
God's continued blessings on you as you read and study his word ~ FlowerLady
Hi Lorraine! I appreciate you taking the time to comment. I was deeply troubled by this stuff at first, much like you are. As in, why would someone feel their scribblings were worth defacing the Word of God? ...But after meeting several gals who read and study their Bibles this way, I got to know their hearts and began to understand that this is their way of putting a visual representation of how the Scripture is molding them, or changing them. As they "played" in their Bibles, they were meditating on the Word and, often, using it as a way to express their reverence of- and hope in- the Truth found there. It's definitely not for everyone, though.
And I see how the posted picture of my Bible pages here makes it look as if some words or parts are obscured. Believe me, when you're looking at this Bible (and not viewing it through a darkened photo on a screen) every word is perfectly legible and can easily be read. :)
I think that anything that draws one closer to the Word of the Lord, and makes one feel more connected to the good Book, is a good thing. You expressed the same thing I was thinking...that while drawing or illustrating verses on the page, the artist is meditating upon the Scripture.
I like your picture of stone rolled away from the tomb, Brin!
After, reading the above responses, as an aside, I have one thing to add about Southern Baptists. I too was raised Southern Baptist and still live in the deep South, and though I've always heard we're not to drink, smoke, dance, or doodle in the Good Book, that was never expressed in our church, which was a large one. I've heard that all my life, though, from other Baptists in the South. So I thought I'd throw in my two cents this one time - we certainly did dance, and my parents (dad was a deacon) had a single gin & tonic each night. I even graduated from a private university associated with the Southern Baptists Association, and they would sponsor street dances on campus, though drinking was never allowed. Just sayin'.
I started Bible journaling this Spring and it awakened in me a deep love of the scripture that I had long forgotten. Don't get me wrong, I loved Jesus. But I had not been spending time in the written Word. Discovering that God could use the artistic talents that HE gave me to help me explore and respond to his word was literally life changing. I'm a visual learner...reading paragraph after paragraph of plain text bores me to tears and I usually don't remember what I read. Being able to color code the scriptures and create visual works of art on the pages has helped me hide his word in my heart in a way that I've never been able to before.
So, those of you who are so quick to chastise those who choose to express their worship this way, please extend some grace to your brothers and sisters. We all worship in different ways AND THAT'S OKAY. This is not an issue of salvation, it's an issue of the freedom we have in Christ to connect with him in the way he's uniquely designed each of us.
Blessings!
No. My Bible is too precious to deface.
No. My Bible is too precious to deface.
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