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| About these, see no. 3 below |
1. Bible journaling
One can do Bible journaling using any of the following combinations:
1. A Bible and a notebook to write down your thoughts;
2. A wide-margin Bible to write down your thoughts right in the Bible itself;
3. A journaling Bible to write down your thoughts in the Bible itself and it has more space;
4. A Bible and a computer or a tablet (instead of a physical notebook) where it seems there is unlimited space to type out your thoughts.
2. What do we note down?
People who love to doodle and draw may prefer any of the first three options above. But I am not concerned here with these artsy activities. I would like to instead turn your attention to just the activity of writing down or typing out your thoughts. What do we note down? We have various options for this too.
1. Some people simply underline passages and note down their thoughts;
2. Some may take more effort by marking the text (using a system of symbols and highlighters) and then note down their thoughts;
3. Some people use the Inductive Bible Study Method to study and journal the Bible;
4. Some have their own unique method of Bible study and journaling;
5. Still some use Bible study guides like Search the Scriptures edited by Alan M. Stibbs or This Morning with God edited by Carol Adeney or some other study guide.
3. About the study guides
Now let us turn our attention to the two study guides that I mentioned above. Both have been published initially by IVP which is an Evangelical publisher. This publisher is generally a trustworthy one. And I am sure there are other study guides like these out there.
Search the Scriptures (STS) contains a course that covers the entire Bible in three years. While This Morning With God (TMWG) covers the entire Bible in four years. That's a combination of seven years worth of Bible study and journaling!
Both STS and TMWG contain brief introductions to each book of the Bible. And for every day of the three/four year period, they have a Scripture to read and some questions for Bible study or journaling to meditate, answer and note down. You may start on any day of the year because these guides are not keyed to any month/year. It does not take too much time to complete the day's study. Both the study guides alternate between books of the Old and New books as well as between sections from each testament.
The STS edition that I have is based on the NIV while the TMWG is based on the RSV. Both these translations of the Bible, in my opinion, are good enough translations, but I think one is always free to use their own choice of Bible translations/versions.
4. How does one use STS or TMWG for journaling?
At the beginning of each of these books, there are suggestions/explanations on how to use them. But the simple idea is this:
1. Open your copy of STS or TMWG;
2. At the top of the day's section the scripture reference is given, so open your Bible to that scripture reference
3. Read the passage from the Bible (perhaps several times);
4. STS or TMWG has some questions based upon the passage, so read them;
5. Think on the passage, answer the questions and note them down;
6. There is a tick box (check box) to mark when you have done your meditation/study/journaling.
I don't have my NIV or my RSV with me so I use biblegateway.com to access these translations. I have been using both STS and TMWG as per my study/journaling system. (And I did not mention prayer here because it is understood that a Christian prays before, during and after Bible study)
5. Few more thoughts related to STS and TMWG
1. Both these study guides help me engage with God's Word and keep me interested in Bible reading and Bible study;
2. Almost all questions in these study guides focus on application and not just information gathering - this is good for devotion and discipleship;
3. Sometimes I reword the study questions to the way I think the questions should be asked;
4. Sometimes while reading the passage of the Bible I come up with another question or two for me to answer.
Archive.org gives us access to several thousands of books. This includes theological and Biblical books. Some books may be downloaded as PDFs or other formats. One can also sign up for an account there to borrow some of the books that cannot be downloaded.
Archive.org has both STS and TMWG in its system. Before you buy them to use for your personal Bible study or journaling, you may consider accessing the books first on archive.org and do a couple of studies. You may borrow each for one hour of use at this website.
6. A different Bible journaling method
This is a suggestion.
1. Choose STS or TMWG for the next couple of years to guide you in your Bible journaling (or keep it alongside your other method/system, see no. 10 below);
2. Don't buy the books but instead make sure you borrow the chosen book for an hour from archive.org. Why borrow? Because the one-hour deadline of archive.org give us plenty of time to pray, read, study, and journal and it also helps us manage our time wisely. (We can borrow again after the deadline);
3. Navigate to the page that contains day one:
Page 21 of 548 for STS or follow this link, this page contains the introduction to Luke and on the next page first study based on Luke starts); and
Page 18 of 510 for TMWG or follow this link TMWG also starts with studies based on Luke;
4. Read the passage for the day from the Bible (perhaps several times);
5. Read and take down the questions in a few minutes (or screenshot them which takes only a second or two);
6. Think about the passage, answer the questions and note them down;
7. It is better to bookmark the page on archive.org to come back easily the next day for your next study (these bookmarks can be renamed and deleted);
8. This may work for those who are familiar with archive.org; if so, then
9. This works for both physical notebook journaling as well as digital journaling;
10. This method answers the question, "What passage of the Bible to study/journal?" and also the earlier question, "What do we note down?";
11. Those who are not familiar with archive.org are suggested to get familiar with this website because it is an excellent resource for education and study.
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