Continuing On Coloring Through the Book of Psalms

For this week's craft post I have a few beautiful coloring pages and inspirational Bible verses to lift your day.

My regular readers will know that I have been working through a devotional coloring book for over a year now called "Bless The Lord Oh My Soul".  I only work on this book during the spring/summer months when the gardening season keeps me pretty busy, then in the winter I switch back to my "Cozy Moments to Calm Your Heart" devotional coloring book.

The "Bless The Lord Oh My Soul" book has you read one psalm or part of a psalm per day, then it has a little space to write your personal reflections.  Check out my first post HERE for links and more information.  There is a coloring page every five or more pages.  What I do is read the daily psalms, then I color in the closest page while I mediate on the verse.  It takes me several days or a week to complete a coloring page depending on the difficulty of the page.

Now that I've updated you on my method and progress of the book, let's look at my newest pages shall we?

"Create In Me A Clean Heart"

I've said before there are some pages I really enjoy to color and "Create in Me a Clean Heart" was one of them.  I love this verse.  I have always loved the old chorus that is based on this psalm and I sing it to myself quite often.  This is the perfect verse to mediate on and I love coloring flowers and birds, so I enjoyed this page very much.

"When I Am Afraid, I Put My Trust In You"

I bet you can guess this page took a while 😁 I remember seeing it in black and white for the first time and thinking "Where do I even begin?".  When facing a difficult coloring page like this one I just start by picking one repeating item, like the pink flower, and I just color the same flower till I got them all, then I pick the next repeating item, and so on and so on till it's done.  

This page contains another powerful verse.  It is a good one to put to memory when fear and anxiety overwhelms me.

"I Will Sing Praises to You"

When I first saw the page above my initial thought was to color the spirals with an ombre effect, but I didn't think I had enough shades of the same color, so I went with this wild design instead.  I really love it and I am glad I didn't go with the ombre style.  I filled in the background with a black pencil to really make the colors pop.

God is our strength, our fortress in times of trouble.  It is good to sing praises to God when we are afraid and to remind ourselves of His steadfast love for us.

"Your Steadfast Love is Better Than Life"

I remember singing this psalm in church too, does that tell you how old I am?

This page was a joy to color.  I loved the imagery as well as the verse and I sung the old chorus in my head as I colored.   It brought back lots of good old church memories.  

"Shout for Joy"

My last page ended up with a monochromatic look even though I didn't intend it that way.  I just looked at the tulips first and thought "Well I'll color the tulips pink first" then when I got to the circular clusters they looked like berries to me so I colored them a pinky/purple and before I knew it, I had a monochromatic page. 😁

This is such a happy verse!  I love how it's not just believers who are told to shout for joy, but the whole earth!

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

See more posts on "Bless the Lord, Oh My Soul" below:

Coloring Through the Book of Psalms

Coloring Through the Book of Psalms, Part II

Coloring Through the Book of Psalms, Part II

In last Tuesday's craft post, I introduced you to a new devotional coloring book I was working on called "Bless the Lord, O My Soul".  I have a few more pages to show you, and then I think I will take a break from this book.  I've spent the summer in the book of Psalms, and I feel the need to move into something else.  I will also have more time now that gardening season is over, so I can spend it on a more meatier book.  I will probably return to this devotional in spring, when gardening season starts again.

Each coloring page also has a corresponding reading page on the opposite side.  If you missed last week's post and would like to see that page and learn more in-depth information of this book, just click the link above.  For this post, I'm just showing you the coloring pages.

Some pages I enjoy coloring more than others and this was one of them.  I have always loved this verse and this is a beautiful illustration of that verse.

This next page is the type of coloring I generally don't like to do.  It's not that interesting to color and it really isn't a pleasant scene.  But the repetition of the coloring really helps me to focus on the verse.  

Here's another one I really enjoyed coloring.  The sheep is so cute and of course I love the verse.  This verse is always a popular one.

This is such a beautiful verse and page.  We need to constantly seek the Lord to guide us and to lead us to His truth.  There is so much deception in the world today, only God can help us discern what is true.

What a beautiful illustration and verse!  It is so inspiring and comforting.  No matter what our circumstance, believers can always take comfort that if they keep their focus on God, He will once again bring us to joy.

I definitely did not enjoy coloring this page 😆.  The design is really not my style. But once again, I just focused and mediated on the verse while coloring.  I will say the illustrations I least enjoy coloring are usually the easiest to mediate on.  Yes, we who put our faith in Jesus are BLESSED indeed!

This one I really enjoyed coloring.  What a gorgeous and creative illustration.  Oh, and the verse! So good! But I think I could say that about just any verse in the book of Psalms.  It is one of my favorite books in the Bible!

Another gorgeous verse and illustration that was a joy to color.  I love this verse set as a song too.  Do you sing this song in your church? 

When troubles strike believers, it drives us to God who is our strong helper.

I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED coloring this page.  Isn't this a beautiful illustration of probably the most famous psalm ever?  This is another old song that I used to love singing in church.  They don't sing it anymore, but I always remember this song giving me comfort.  I still sing it to myself at home sometimes.

What about you?  Do you remember this song? 

This next illustration and verse is so beautiful and meaningful.  "Be Still". When worry starts to fill my heart, I hear these soft words "Be Still, and know that I am God".  He has it all under control, just surrender it all to Him.

Now normally I would not enjoy coloring an abstract design such as this one, but I think because it is formed in a sun's rays, I kinda liked this one.  I think it's a great illustration for this verse too.

I hope my colorful Bible verse pages brought a smile to your face today.  

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

 

Coloring Through the Book of Psalms

Many of my regular readers know I Bible Journal and use to regularly post my Bible Journaling pages.  I had to stop Bible Journaling because it is very time consuming.  My garden just really ate up a lot of time in the growing season and during the winter I was recovering from hip surgery.  I did find another creative outlet to Bible Journaling that wasn't quite as complex and less time consuming, and that is a coloring book of Psalms.  Here I read a psalm, write some reflections about the psalm, and then color a page while I meditate on that psalm.  I purchased my book at a local Christian boutique, but you can also buy it on AMAZON.

The first pages of the book has a lovely floral design you can color or leave blank if you wish.  I chose to color mine.  On all the pages, my coloring medium of choice was colored pencils so they wouldn't bleed through to the other side.

There is a page where you can write in to whom you are gifting the book and leave a message.  I left mine blank since it was to myself.

The beginning pages of the book.

There is an "introduction" page where you can read how to get the most of your book.

Each page has a date, which I ignored, as I couldn't keep up with reading on those exact dates.  A verse is highlighted at the top, and then there is a psalm to read (or just a portion of a psalm) and a space to write some reflections about the psalm.  

You might be thinking, I couldn't possibly color an entire page a day.  You are correct.  Neither could I.  There are approximately five or six non-coloring pages in-between the coloring pages. I would usually read one page a day, then color for a short while.  By the time I was done reading five or six pages, I had the entire page colored.

I used a Bible Commentary to get ideas of what to write about in the reflections section.  I would read the psalm, then google the Enduring Word Bible Commentary to see what they had to say about the psalm.  I would write down the highlights of the commentary.  You can do whatever works for you.  You can just jot down your own personal reflections.  I did this to help me dig into God's Word more.

I know we shouldn't put God on the back burner, or neglect our daily devotions, but we do have seasons of life that are just crazier than others and this was a way to keep me in God's word in a more simple, less time consuming way.

I think this is also a great book for people that don't like to Bible Journal because it requires too much creativity.  Coloring is simple and relaxing, and everyone can enjoy it no matter their skill level. 

I love to color and I found coloring these pages, meditating on the verses as I colored so therapeutic.

Some pages are easier and more enjoyable to color than others.  I always love coloring pretty flowers like in the page above.  I dislike coloring busy pages like the one below, but I did it anyway, working a little bit on it everyday trying to memorize the scripture at the same time.

 I will be back next week with more pages from this book, plus I'll show you a new coloring devotional book I just got in the mail.  It is perfect for winter.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Creative Bible Journaling - June Pages Part Two

Come along with me each month as I journal my way through the Bible.  I'm not artistic at all, so you won't see beautiful illustrations and calligraphy, but what you will see is what I gleaned from the scriptures every day and how I creatively journaled what I have learned in the margins of my Inspire Bible.

In last month's Bible Journaling post  I mentioned I had way too many Bible Journaling posts for June and very few for July and August, so I decided to divide the month of June into two separate posts and then combine my July and August posts into one.  Ah, the life of a gardener,  certain seasons we are very busy.   Now is a gardener's very busy season:   Harvest time!  But in other seasons we just sit and dream!

Now, onto the last of my June pages, shall we?  

My first page I created to illustrate Isaiah 40:26.    The theme of Isaiah 40 is "Comfort and Strength for God's People".  Isaiah was trying to get the people to see the greatness of God by seeing His glory in creation.  I must admit, anytime I have my doubts about God's inability to solve a problem in my life, all I have to do is take a little walk in nature and see His magnificent handiwork everywhere.  Suddenly my problems seems so small and insignificant because if could create "all this", surely He can handle my issues.

To make this page I painted the background with several different shades of craft paint.  I stamped stars and diamonds in the background and then used a mixture of stamps and my own handwriting for the verse.

Here is another page that shows how nature reveals God's glory.

To make this page, I colored in the background with a marker, then I added a die cut rainbow.  I hand wrote the Bible verse, and added a piece of ephemera from my "Worthy of Worship" kit from Illustrated Faith.

I had so much fun making this page!  I read this verse, and then I just immediately thought of all the strange and interesting creatures God has made for us to enjoy.

To make this page, I painted the background green and used a combination of stamps and my own handwriting for the verse.  The "creatures" are 3D stickers.  I also painted some white dots in the background.

Here is a page that I created that is combination of notes, Bible study, and a verse illustration.  There's no rules in Bible journaling, you can do whatever the Lord leads you.  It doesn't always have to be pretty illustrations, sometimes it can just be notes or notes illustrated in an attractive way.

On this page I am illustrating a theme from my devotional that came with my "Worthy of Worship".  In that devotional, the author went through all the different ways in our lives we can worship God.  One way is to worship God with our testimony.  Simply share with others what God has done for us.  But the most traditional way to worship God, is to praise Him when we are assembled with our brothers and sisters in Christ (as seen in Psalm 22:22).

In addition to notes and verses on what it means to "Worship with your testimony" I also wrote some notes on a "Reminder" ephemera card about what it means to rest in the Lord, based on Psalm 23:2.

To make this page, I painted the background with craft paint and added little white dots.  I hand wrote all  my notes and the Bible verse.  The "Smile Jesus Loves You" and "Reminder" are ephemera from the "Worthy of Worship" kit.  The flowers are die cuts.

Keeping with the theme of "Worship with your testimony", my next page illustrates to give thanks to God, proclaim His greatness, and tell the ENTIRE WORLD what He has done!  Wow! That's a tall order!

To make this page I painted the background with bright pink craft paint.  The rainbow is ephemera from the "Worthy of Worship" kit.  The globe and people is a stamp, that I colored in, cut out, and adhered to the page.  The flower is a die cut.  I used a mix of stamps and my own handwriting for the verse.

Another reminder from God that He wants us to tell others about Him.  Worship with your testimony!

To make this page I painted the background with green craft paint then painted in a little background design with blue craft paint.  I stamped the Bible verse.  The "Kingdom Carrier" and "Smiley Face" are ephemera from the "Worthy of Worship" kit.  The yellow flower is a die cut.

This last page is the same verse as Psalm 105 above, but in a different book!  How interesting is that?  This author was most likely quoting the psalm.  

To make this page, I adhered a piece of pink designer paper in the margin and painted some white dots.  The flowers and hearts are ephemera from the "Worthy of Worship" kit.  The verse is a combination of stamps and my own handwriting.

 I hope my Bible journaling pages inspired you this month to get out and tell others about Jesus!

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Creative Bible Journaling - April Pages

Come along with me each month as I journal my way through the Bible.  I'm not artistic at all, so you won't see beautiful illustrations and calligraphy, but what you will see is what I gleaned from the scriptures every day and how I creatively journaled what I have learned in the margins of my Inspire Bible.

I've got just a few pages to share with you this month.  I don't know what happened, I know I read my Bible everyday, but I just must not have journaled as much.  Now next month, I have a ton of pages!

During the month of April I spent my time in the book of Psalms...the EASIEST book in the Bible to journal in.  

In Psalm 63 David says God's "love is better than life itself".  Do you believe that?  Do you love God more than life itself?  I think I do.  But when I am put to the test, during a time where I am even wondering where God is, will I believe this?  I hope and pray so.

To make this page, I put a piece of designer page in the margin then I put a light coat of white craft paint over it to tone down the design so that the words could be more easily seen.  I used stamps for all the words, adding a die cut heart around the word "love" to emphasize it.  Finally, I colored in some of the flowers in the designer paper with pink and yellow craft paint.

This next page is so important in the Christian life.  So many Christians pray and don't receive answers, wondering why God doesn't hear the prayer.  There could be many reasons for that, but one could be unconfessed sin.  We must always go to God with a clean heart in prayer and confess our sins.  But if you have confessed your sins and still feel God isn't listening, just be patient.  God always answers our prayers.  I once heard a speaker say "there are always three answers to a prayer:  "not yet", "yes", or "no, I've got something better in mind."

To make this page, I first applied a sheet of pink paper in the margin and then used a combination of stamps and my own hand writing for the verse.  The praying man was a free image off the Internet.  The heart is a die cut.  I added some white paint dots for embellishment. 

What a joyful verse this next one is!  Yes, let's rejoice!  No matter what is going in our lives or in our world, lets "be glad in God's presence" and "be filled with joy".  I know it can be so hard during difficult times to be joyful.  But we have a beautiful, miraculous future to look forward to!  It's during hard times that we really must focus in on the Lord, and soak up His presence.  It helps to take our minds off our circumstances.

I love to listen to news Podcasts, I could play them all day long.  But somedays, the negativity really gets me down and that's when I say "Enough!"  I turn it off, and turn on some worship music instead, and before long my focus has changed.  I have entered His Presence, and I'm singing, and happy, and praising the Lord.  

To make this page, I once again used white craft paint to tone down the designer paper.  Then I used a variety of stamps for the Bible verse and added paper flowers for embellishment.

I love this verse and the image I found on the Internet.  Jesus is the shepherd who watches over and cares for his sheep...you and I!  The word says "each day He carries us in His arms!"  Isn't that incredible?  When you wake up in the morning, expecting a bad day because of some reason or another, remind yourself of this verse.  Jesus is carrying you!  Give the load to Him!

To make this page I painted the margin with green craft paint then using a mixture of stumps and my own handwriting I wrote the verse.  The image was found on the Internet.  I simply printed it and colored it in.

David had to wait quite awhile to see his prayers answered, but he never stopped praying and he always praised God through the trials.  He consistently felt God's love and mercy through the most difficult times while he waited for the answer.  We can do that too!  Just because we're going through hard times and it seems our prayers are going unanswered, doesn't mean we still can't feel His loving presence in our lives.

I have a friend going through a very painful cancer, but the comfort He gets from the Lord amazes me.  He recently said "God is good, no matter our circumstances.  His character remains the same...the God of all comfort".  Despite my friend's physical suffering, he is getting spiritual comfort from the Lord and he is being an encouragement and an inspiration of faith to us all.

For this page, I painted the background with different shades of craft paint.  The sentiment was done with a variety of stamps, stickers, and my own handwriting.  The praying girl is an image off the Internet that I printed and colored in.

And for my last page I have another joy-filled Bible verse.  Becoming a believer is almost always a search filled process.  When you hear believers testimonies, most of them tried everything else the world had to offer first, as if they are searching for something to fill them but they're looking in all the wrong places.  Here David acknowledges that search, and asks God to fill them with "Joy and Gladness".

To make this page, I used a variety of stamps and stickers for the sentiment, underlining a few key words.  I used stamps for the flowers and colored them in with pencils.  I sponged some blue on the border.  I made a mistake stamping the word "Gladness" so to fix it, I just stamped the word on another piece of paper and put in on top.  It kinda makes the word "Gladness" stand out more.  It's an example of how are Bible Journaling mistakes can be fixed.

 I hope you enjoyed my Bible Journaling pages this month!  

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Creative Bible Journaling - March Pages

Come along with me each month as I journal my way through the Bible.  I'm not artistic at all, so you won't see beautiful illustrations and calligraphy, but what you will see is what I gleaned from the scriptures every day and how I creatively journaled what I have learned in the margins of my Inspire Bible.

I've been working my way through an old devotional of mine where you read the Bible in four years.  I like that more than one year Bible reading plans because I feel you can do a more in-depth study.  In the month of March I finished the book of 2 Samuel and then the devotional author took me back to Psalms.

My first page I created to illustrate the story of how David lost his first born child with Bathsheba because of his sin.  What struck me most about this chapter was when Nathan asked David "Why, then, have you despised the Word of the Lord and done this horrible deed?"  I never really considered that when we sin we are despising God's Word.  

For my next page, I mediated on the story of how David still lost his child, even though he was repentant.  Just because God forgives us, doesn't mean there still won't be consequences of our sin.  For example,  people who abuse food, drugs, or alcohol can have affects on their body that will last the rest of their lives, and/or relationships affected by sinful behavior may never be again what they once were.

Another part of this passage was how David still worshipped the Lord, even though his prayer to save his son went unanswered.  That is a difficult, yet important thing to do, for it shows we put our trust in Him and His will. 

The story of David and Amnon is a sad one.  Amnon committed a horrible sin against his half-sister, but instead of addressing it, David ignored it, which resulted in more tragedy.  We must never ignore sin in our own lives, or in the lives of our loved ones.  We must address it and conquer it in God's strength.

I further illustrated this story by using a verse from Ephesians.  David's other son, Absalom was furious with his brother's treatment of his sister and he was provoked to anger because his father did nothing about it.  

David is brought low from his inactivity to discipline his own sons.  He has to flee for his life from his own kingdom and while he is down and out he is cursed from a villager.  David could have had his guards kill the man for his hateful words, but instead he humbled himself and was willing to hear what God might say to him through a cursing critic.  The story reminded me of the verse in James 4:  "Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will lift you up."  It's hard not to defend yourself when criticized, or attack back.  

Bible Journaling isn't always pretty pictures.  Here I wrote some notes from a Bible commentary to help me understand this chapter.

For the next two pages I did both:  created a pretty page, but then added in some bible commentary notes to help me more deeply grasp the scriptures.

David's throne was eventually restored to him, but at the cost of his son's life.  The Lord had once again rescued him.

I really got a chuckle over the verse "There happened to be a troublemaker there..."  so I created a page all about how I shouldn't be a trouble maker.  Unfortunately we all have known people who are trouble makers.  I'm sure I have been one myself many times.  God desires us to be peacemakers, not trouble makers, so I wrote a little prayer to God asking Him to help me to be a peacemaker.  Then I added some Bible Commentary notes about the chapter and a Bible verse of how we should not devise evil, but be counselors of peace.

I absolutely love it when I can use paint in my Bible.  Here I created a sunrise using craft paint then I stamped and hand wrote a verse over it.

For my next page, I stamped and hand wrote a verse from Chapter 23 on top and then added some notes about Chapter 24 on the bottom.  Some times when I read my Bible, the story doesn't always make sense to me.  So I read a Bible Commentary on the chapter to help explain it.  "Enduring Word Bible Commentary" is my favorite.  Here I struggled understanding why David was taking a census and not listening to the word of God or his advisors.  Was it due to pride or lack of trust in the Lord that David needed to know if he had enough of a fighting force to conquer a neighboring nation?

For this page I just wrote some notes on how David had a sensitive heart and I should pursue one too.  David was not sinless, but he had a sensitive heart to sin.

I painted the background using craft paint.  Then I wrote some notes on the history of the threshing floor to help me understand the story.

After I finished reading 2 Samuel is was back to the book of Psalms to pick up where I left off.  The book of Psalms is the easiest of all the books in the Bible to illustrate, and for me, one of the most enjoyable.

 I hope you were inspired with God's Word today!

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!