Special scribbles in my Bible are ever present. Its began years ago when tiny hands grabbed a pen nearby while I wasn’t looking and drew “toddler pictures” on page after page of my brand-new Bible. I had placed Bible on the coffee table in the den, and beside it lay the ink pen which was used in the violation. The Bible was a special Christmas gift from my family, and I was thrilled when I received it on Christmas Day that year. I enjoyed reading it daily along with my Bible studies, and carried it to church and studies weekly. My perfect gift was in mint condition with fresh pages placed in a pretty leather cover. One morning, I discovered the new “decorations” on the front pages, along with a few scribbles in the books of Genesis, a circle or two in Psalms and the Book on Revelation got a whimsical of doodles. My initial response was a bit of anger. Yet, my anger immediately turned to joy, knowing God …show more content…
Psalms 149:4 says “the LORD takes delight in his people.” He rejoices over us unconditionally! Even when we scribble a mess in our lives, we have the promise of knowing He loves and accepts us as His precious children. Today, my kids are teens/young adults, yet after all of these years, this special bible with toddler scribbles is the one I still carry. The pages are worn, and the Bible has separated from its spine. It could use a good repair job, yet I have no plans to mend it. I love it just as it is with it’s years of wear and tear. Love holds it together like glue. In addition, I have added my own scribbles myself by jotting notes in the margin and highlighting Scri img_1948 pture that speaks to me. Underlined promises highlighted in pink and yellow, bring me comfort and direction, reminding me I am still His joy. He rejoices over me,
“okay what is this, a Bible what kind of sick joke are you playing with me what am I supposed to do with this bible, if I sell it I won’t get much for it, I can’t eat it, it’s made of paper, and it don’t even look appetizing. It can’t protect me; come on lady do you have anything of value here?
The NRSV Notetaker's Bible: New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2009. Print.
The book of Psalms is one of the most useful books all throughout the Biblical text. It is not just a book of stories or law but personal praises, laments, and the deepest cries of the soul to the one true King: Yahweh. The Psalter is “the most reliable theological, pastoral, and liturgical resource given us in the biblical tradition” (pp. 1). These psalms pave a path for practical faith in the world today. Author, theologian, and teacher, Walter Brueggemann, goes into depth on the psalms of orientation, disorientation, and new orientation to discuss that through the unexpected high and low seasons of life one can turn to the Psalms for authentic conversation with God.
When Josiah was twenty five he began his next chapter in his dedication to the Lord by rebuilding the temple. The temple had not been restored for almost a century, so it became of great importance to Josiah and his people. This restoration brought new jobs for his people and new hope for the land. As the workers were cleaning out the temple they found a book that looked of great importance. They gave the book to the high priest Hilkiah, who then gave it to Staphan, Josiah’s secretary. The book was the bible, which had been forgotten for so long. Josiah had Staphan read him the words of the bible and was astonished by what was written in it. Josiah tore his robe as a sign for his gri...
Psalm 113 reads like a 1st century pep talk for those with spiritual burnout. The writer makes his case for the Lord by pointing to the many ways that God earns our praise. These nine verses of scripture are saturated with three specific reasons to praise the Lord – He is Su...
The scratching of many quill pens can be heard throughout the room. The rustling of papers, the pausing to dip in ink, these are the sounds that mark this building. This the year 700 AD, and these are monks in a little monastery in Ireland. This particular order has stood for hundreds of years, faithfully and quietly living out the Gospel. They arose in the early hours of the morning to spend several hours reciting the Psalms, hymns and Scriptures together, paused, and then did so again. They have eaten a quiet, sober meal together, and then sought to go about their daily labors. Brother Mark has been at his task since, copying the precious manuscript of the Rule of Saint Benedict. It is nearing the evening meal, and if you had been at this work, you would
Every Bible verse I've ever memorized has developed a memory. In 2nd grade, I presented Luke 2:4 in the Children's Musicals in my church play; in 4th grade, I repeated John 3:16 to myself for an hour so I could win a balloon animal; and in 7th grade, I went to Hume Lake Christian Camp where we gained points for every memory verse we could recite and my team memorized the entirety of Romans 12.
One day I received some information from a Christian campus organization. They enclosed a brochure with a listing of their tools and books used in disci-pleship and witnessing. I scanned the list and noticed an offering called "Bible Memory Pack." The blurb explained the secret and the necessity of Bible memorization. So, I added it to my already lengthy list of purchases and sent off the list with a check.
6. Stafford, Tim and Yancey, Philips. The Student Bible, New International Version. Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1996.
After some research, I learned just how treasured and important these were during the time. It showed high status and wealth to have an illuminated manuscript designed custom for you. These manuscripts were most commonly written by monks and the illustrations were done by artists. The text would be hand written with a fine tip feather pen first and when the text was complete, the illustrator would then add all of the ornamentation. Most manuscripts were completed on parchment paper, very few still exist that were done on papyrus.
We do tend to expect certain things when we enter a place of worship, or peruse an active ministry, and truthfully, when taking in Christian oriented art. There are a couple reoccurring emblems, symbols, well-worn themes, and subjects which have been deemed safe, coming under overuse, carrying the weight of a saltine in the impact it makes on people, including us. While intentions are almost always well meaning, these conventions appear to the secular as a genre of its own in culture and art, quite often ringing with an unsavory note of incompetence. That’s already an unpleasant attribution to a faith that has changed the world, having built the infrastructure of empathy that has survived ages and permeates the social development of our western culture. It speaks to a deeper issue within the Church itself, which is a woeful lack of inspiration.
It is a new year and a new beginning, a time to decide who we will be in 2016. Bibles have beginnings too! In printed Bibles, before the “in the beginning” of Genesis 1:1 is another beginning of the Bible: the title page. In a world new to printed vernacular Bibles, title pages communicated where the Bible was printed, and what it contained—all important information in the tumultuous era of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The title pages of the Geneva Bible and the King James Bible are full of rich imagery that reflect the worldview of their translators, patrons, and printers.
“Students must learn to process both words and pictures” (Tompkins, 153). I agree with this statement, however, I don’t have a lot of experience with it in the classroom. I taught my own children how to think critically to images whether they were on TV or in print while I home schooled. I am sad that many students go to school and their parents have not taught them how to think or appreciate visual language arts. It seems this is a responsibility that teachers should take seriously. I don’t teach language arts, but I do teach Bible to my homeroom class. One student just came to America this summer. While studying God’s template for the wilderness temple and what each element was to represent, I put up a visual of the temple as it might
Text and Texture:Close Readings of Selected Biblical Texts, Fishbane, Michael, Schocken Books, New York 1979 pp3-39
As I sank into despair, a book caught my eye. Buried beneath homework, magazines, and litter was my poor bedraggled Bible, falling apart from years of use-none of it recent. I dragged it out and opened it to Philippians.