Back to "Coloring Through the Book of Psalms"

At the end of April I shared that I was wrapping up coloring and reading  My Winter Devotional Coloring Book "Cozy Moments to Calm Your Heart"  and that I would be going back to my spring/summer devotional on the book of Psalms.  I have been working through this book called "Bless the Lord, O My Soul" for two years now.  It is designed to be completed in one year, but I don't have full devotionals on weekends and as I previously stated, I switch books in the fall.

So here we are.  Back in the book of Psalms.  I have been devouring the book of Psalms lately not just in this book, but also in my "The Bible Recap" daily plan on the Holy Bible App.  This is a plan where you read the entire bible in one year;   I'm doing it with my church.  The book of Psalms is exactly where I need to be right now.  I have found the words so comforting and let's just say I can relate to King David feelings of hurt and betrayal as his desire for God to vindicate him.  For those of you who have read my previous devotional posts where I shared the hurts caused by extended family members,  I am still struggling.  I have good days and bad days.  Some days I hardly think about them at all, and other days it just comes raging back like a flood.  I have been devouring God's word, praying, playing worship music, and going to the alter for prayer at church every chance I get.  I keep praying to be delivered from the pain that these people who call themselves Christians, (one is even a current senior pastor) have caused me and my family, but so far, I'm still stuck.  But I wanted to thank all of you who have sent me emails or wrote a comment, your support, prayers, and understanding mean everything to me.  

On to God's word, here is my first page:

I Cry Aloud to God

God has certainly been hearing a lot of my cry lately.  The Bible says "He Will Hear Me".  I know I will be healed of this pain.  I know God will do something.

We Give Thanks

Giving thanks, even when prayer goes unanswered, even when you're in the middle of the trial, giving thanks is so important.  We must remember His past "wondrous deeds" in our lives to remind ourselves that He will do something "wondrous" in our current situation too!

                "We Will Recount Your Praise"

This verse is similar to the previous one.  We have to count our blessings from God, and not just in our lives, but in all our generations.  We need to tell our children and grandchildren the wondrous things God has done for us, so they in turn will tell their children, and so on and so on.

Arise, O God

How many of you are like me and just can't wait for Jesus to come back and set things right again?  There is so much evil, so much hurt, so much pain.  When Jesus returns, all that will end for He will rule with an iron scepter (Revelation 19:15).  There will be no more suffering and pain.

             How Lovely is Your Dwelling Place

I remember singing this verse as a song  at church years ago  "Better is One Day" by Matt Redman.   If you're unfamiliar with it the theme is that one day in God's courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.  So, so true!

I Will Sing of the Steadfast Love of the Lord

The images of this page reminded me of peacocks so I chose the colors of the peacock when I colored it in.

Singing is so important when going through a trial.  Playing worship music when thoughts come through my head that are not worth dwelling on, is a great way for me to focus my mind on God and remember His past faithfulness. 

Satisfy Us in the Morning

I normally love to color birds, but these were the ugliest birds I ever did see, which resulted in my poor coloring.  So excuse my bird coloring, as I don't think there was any other way to color them to make them look pretty 😂

Psalm 90:14 is a prayer for God's grace to refresh the soul daily.  Boy, do I need that, do you?  The psalmist asks God to provide deep spiritual fulfillment at the start of the day so that he can experience lasting joy and gladness regardless of his circumstances.  Sometimes having devotionals in the morning can be so difficult with our schedules.  I have my devotionals in the morning during the winter months, but in the summer I have to switch it to afternoon as I need to get out and be in the garden early before it gets too hot.  But I can still play worship music while out in the garden to focus my thoughts on God, or better yet, just listen to the birds sing and marvel at His glory in creation.

Mightier than the Waves of the Sea

Have you ever watched waves crash against a shore and just be amazed at the power?  In some places the waves are so strong that through the years they cut out holes in the rock like at the Apostle Islands in Bayfield Wisconsin.  Well, our God is mightier than those waves!  He is more powerful than personal crisis, illness, or life storm.  And if He is more powerful, He has the ability to bring peace and stability to whatever situation you are in.

And that concludes the pages I have done from "Bless the Lord, Oh My Soul".  Next, I want to show you some Bible Journaling pages from my new Bible "Inspire Prayer".    If you remember in last month's devotional post I had some difficulty with smudging, ruining the pages of my brand new Bible, well, this month I can share two completed pages that are smudge free!  Thanks to some tips from my long-time blogging bud Ellie, I switched to different pencils plus I kept a sheet of card stock in-between my pages for a long time.  Ellie suggested I use Faber Castell Polychromos colored pencils which she claimed smudged the least, so I purchased a large set on Amazon.  I don't like them as much as I like my Prismacolor  Pencils or Castle Art Pencils (those color more smoothly, like gel), but heh, if the Faber Castell don't ruin my Bible pages, I love it!  I will probably only use the Faber Castell pencils in my Bible and save the Prismacolor and Castle Arts for everything else.  All the devotional pages I've shown you above were done with Prismacolor Pencils.

In addition to my "Bless the Lord, Oh, My Soul" devotional, plus The Bible Recap, I've also been doing a Bible Study by Kay Arthur "God's Love Alive in You" which takes you through the books of John, James, and Philemon.  See, I told you I was devouring God's Word lately!  Oh, and I am also reading a short daily devotion for dieters called "Devotions for Dieters".  That one is just a short verse and paragraph a day to help you stay emotionally and spiritually strong so you can treat your body like the Temple of God instead of like a garbage dump 😃.  I really enjoy reading from it everyday.

Anyway, onto my Bible Journaling pages.  The Inspire Prayer Bible always starts each book of the Bible with a header page, highlighting one main verse from that book.  2 John 1:6 is a good reminder that if we say we love God, we have to do what he has commanded us and one of those commandments is to love one another.  That's a hard one to swallow isn't it?  It's hard to love those who don't love us, or who treat us poorly.  Love is not just an emotion, but an action.  True love requires following God's teachings.  I think one of the reasons I have been struggling so much with this family issue is because I truly loved and cared for this person(s) and to find out how little they cared about me to do something so awful, so hateful, so deceptive, is just shocking to me.  I think if I had not cared at all about them, this wouldn't bother me so much.  So what do I do now?  How do you continue to love someone who hurt you so deeply and refuses to admit any wrongdoing and wants no attempt at reconciliation or restorative justice?  I don't know, and that is why I just keep praying, keep singing, keep reading the word, and keep going to the alter.  I don't know, but God knows.

John's primary goal in writing is to share the Gospel message so that the community of believers can experience the same vibrant, boundless joy that He has in Christ.  I kinda know the feeling John is describing.  I have two children who are also "following the truth".  There's nothing that matters more to me than to see my children, and prayerfully someday my grandchildren, serve and love the Lord.  I have experienced the pain of having a wayward child for a short season, but I also experienced great joy to see that same child come back to God.  Nothing matters more, nothing gives me greater joy.

I hope you enjoyed my Bible Journaling pages, scripture, and personal reflections I have shared today.  I appreciate you all so much, and I covet your prayers and encouraging words.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.  Please continue to pray for me.  Everyday, gets a little better with the passage of time, but my dream would be for God to do a miracle in this heartbreaking situation,

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

For more coloring devotional pages on the book of Psalms, see these posts:

Coloring Through the Book of Psalms

Coloring Through the Book of Psalms, Part II

Continuing On Coloring Through the Book of Psalms

Coloring Through the Book of Psalms:  Final Pages of the Year

 

Coloring Through the Book of Psalms: Final Pages of the Year

It has been a long time since I have posted anything bible journaling related and for those of you who are actually interested in my bible journaling I apologize and I apologize to God to for not putting Him first this summer.  It has been such a crazy, busy, overwhelming summer and I just didn't have time (or make the time) to spend in God's Word.  I don't know what happened this year, but I had the most difficult time keeping up with my garden this year.  I was waking up at 5:00 am and working outside till noon everyday and I still couldn't get everything done.  It was very discouraging for me.  Even now my garden is no where near ready for winter.  I still have about three gardens to cut down.  Rain has really prevented me from getting out there much this past week, and now today it's only going to be in the 40's but I'm still going to dress warm and get out there this afternoon because I have too.  The less I get done in the fall, the more there will be in the spring to do which is when I have the least amount of time.  So pray for me to get caught up in my garden chores, I need it!

Because I was so busy in the garden, I only got three pages completed in my "Bless the Lord, O My Soul" devotional coloring book.  My last post "Continuing on Coloring Through the Book of Psalms" was in June!  

So because I was so negligent in my devotions this summer, I only have three colored pages to show you, but there is about five pages of devotional bible reading between pages, so I was a bit more faithful to my daily bible reading than it appears.  Here is my first one:

Blessed be the Lord

I really enjoyed coloring this page, especially the chrysanthemums.  What a reassurance for the believer to know that God daily bears our burdens.

May All Who Seek You Rejoice

There are always pages in every coloring book that I do not enjoy coloring and this was one of them.  I decided to do a monochromatic style when coloring this page, but when I was done, I wished I would have colored each flower a different color.  I think I would have liked it more that way.

This is such a happy verse.  It calls us to rejoice in God, to love our salvation, and to praise Him!

Sing Praises

I loved coloring this page.  The bicycle is so cute!  

This is another happy verse.  Both David's mouth and his soul sang praises and were filled with joy.

Hopefully, prayerfully, I will be much more faithful to my daily devotions this winter.  I usually switch books in the winter to my winter-themed "Cozy Moments to Calm Your Heart", so this may be the last of the psalm book you see this year.

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

Continuing On Coloring Through the Book of Psalms

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

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

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