Blog 1 - Bible Journaling - Introducing Inspire Praise
Are you familiar with the term Bible Journaling? It is a relatively little known method of Bible Study in South Africa, though it is growing fast and becoming ever more popular. The idea is to buy yourself a Bible that has been published specifically for the aim of journaling. You then colour and craft your way through the Bible as you study it, thereby reflecting on the text even more than merely reading it, would have achieved. Bible journaling seems to be the perfect marriage of two of my blogs, namely Bybel Legkaart and A Pretty Talent. I recently bought my first journaling Bible and aim to start reading in it very soon. In the meantime, I wish to introduce you to the Bible itself and to open the world of Bible Journaling to you, if you are as yet unfamiliar with it. In upcoming blogs, you can look forward to blogs that does not only discuss the text of the Bible with you, as you have come to expect from Bybel Legkaart blogs, but also shows you how to go about journaling your own journey through the Bible. I will follow the same step by step instructional principle that readers of A Pretty Talent has come to expect. I invite you to enjoy the journey with me.
Blog 2 - Bible Journaling - Decorating the side pages of the Bible, while contemplating relationship
I am taking my first tentative steps into Bible journaling. I bought myself the Inspire Praise Bible, which has lovely decorated pages on the side of the Bible, but I wanted to personalize these a little. I show you how to go about this in a step by step blog today. But this is more than a journaling blog. My purpose with reading the Bible is to grow ever more intimate in my relationship with our Father. For this reason, I chose to stencil the word relationship on my Bible. I also wrote a short poem about having a relationship with God as I contemplated all of this. I share the poem in this blog as well. The Afrikaans readers will be happy to learn that the poem was written in Afrikaans.
Blog 3 - Bible Journaling - Testing Mediums and Surface Preparations while contemplating Foundations
Bleeding. That is the problem that faced me as I started my first journaling pages in my Inspire Praise Bible. I used fibre tip pens on my page, which bled through to the reverse side of the page, causing ugly ink blotches on that side. I am confident that I will be able to overcome these with a trick or two, but I would prefer to avoid the problem in future. So, I tested a couple of mediums to prepare a Bible page surface with, that would be able to prevent bleeding. I then tried a number of paints, pens and pencils on these test pages to see how they react on the newly prepared backgrounds. I had varying degrees of success and share the tests and results with you in today's blog. As I was busy with this, I contemplated how we often get hurt (bleed) in life, because we fail to get our foundation with God right. I am reminded of the passage in Acts 4:11 which reads, 'For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, "The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone."'
The story gets even more interesting as, at the same time that I am busy with these experiments, I am also reading from the book of Ezra in the other Bible that I am currently reading. In Ezra 3:6-7 they prepare to rebuild the foundation of the temple in Jerusalem. For this task, they hire masons and carpenters. Perhaps it is time for some figurative masonry in our own lives as well, to prevent further bleeding? I invite you to get the foundation of your own life repaired, if it has fallen into disrepair. Invite Jesus back into your life and make Him the cornerstone of your life building. If your masonry skills are not up to scratch, ask the Holy Spirit to lend a hand. He is the master Mason in these matters. But also take note that the Israelites had made sacrifices as they prepared to lay the foundations. The ultimate sacrifice has been paid by Jesus, who offered Himself for our sins and transgressions, when He took these upon Himself on the cross. There is now no further penalty for sin, for those who are in Christ Jesus. But in order to live a life which is completely dedicated to God (holy), it may be necessary that you give up (sacrifice) some of your own vices and ways of doing things? Let us all make the necessary sacrifices in our own lives to honour the great sacrifice made by Jesus.
Blog 4 - Bible Journaling - Colouring the opening pages while contemplating praise
As I turn to the first two pages in my Bible, I find that these are beautifully decorated in line drawings that begs to be coloured. I use a combination of colouring pencils and fibre tip pens to colour these pages and show you how I went about it. As I was doing so, I contemplated what it meant to live a life of praise. I wrote a poem that sprung from this contemplation, which I share in this blog. The poem is written in Afrikaans.
Blog 5 - Bible Journaling - Colouring the third and fourth pages of the Bible while contemplating Attitude
God makes me happy. I find such immense pleasure in my relationship with Him. Do you know what I mean? I am sure you must, because the idea is not one that originated with me. There are numerous passages in the Bible that speaks of the joy that is to be found in God. The best known is probably Philippians 4:4 which says, "Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again - rejoice!" Years ago, I wrote a very short four line poem in which I expressed the attitude with which I intend to approach life. This has since become somewhat of a life motto for me. In today's blog, I share this poem with you, while I show you how to prepare your pages to receive mediums that would otherwise bleed through to the reverse side of the page, if left untreated.
Blog 6 - Bible Journaling - Colouring the fifth and sixth pages of the Bible while contemplating Names
The page that faced me next in my Bible, was the one that had the title of the Bible printed boldly on it. The Bible makes a big issue of names, both those of people, as well as those of God Himself. My thoughts trailed off to the names that I mention before God in my prayers. I also mentions issues by their names in my prayers. Then I remembered a poem I had written a while ago. It seemed to fit nicely with this whole idea of names and titles, so I include it in today's blog, before I share the steps I took to decorate this particular double page layout.
Blog 7 - Bible Journaling - Decoupage Serviettes onto the Title Pages
I am still on the opening pages of my Inspire Praise Journaling Bible, with very little to read, but lots of decorating to enjoy. The title page must be the first exception to this rule. Not even the Table of Contents, on the opposite page, makes up for the dull dreariness that I was faced with when I turned this page. I would go all out to make this page more acceptable, when compared to the rest of the pages. That is why I decided to decoupage some lovely serviettes onto this double page spread. I felt as if I was sitting down to a feast when I looked at the Table of Contents, which seemed to resemble a menu to the finest dining. For this reason, I opted to use the theme of dining and feasting on this page layout. When my mind started to wander into the area of feasting, it reminded me of the passage in Matthew 22, The Parable of the Great Feast.
Blog 8 - Bible Journaling - Tables and Lists and Burdens
I remember when I was still in early Sunday school, the Sunday school teacher expected of us to learn the books of the Bible by heart. In order! We all thought it a daunting task. The idea was to do it five books at a time, but the teacher himself seemed to have forgotten about his plan of action after the first week. It always sort of bugged me afterwards, that I did not know the books of the Bible in order. It would continue to haunt me until years later, when I started to enjoy reading the Bible. All of a sudden, I realized one day that the daunting task had been mastered without any effort on my side. I knew the Bible books by heart, simply because I had spent enough time reading and studying it. I did not know it at the time, but this would be one of the first unnecessary burdens that a fellow believer in Christ would put on me. Many more were to follow, and I am sure that even more await me in future. We do that to each other. In today's blog, I share a little more about the idea of burdens with you, while I work on the lists and tables in my Inspire Praise Bible.
Blog 9 - Bible Journal - Entering His Gates with Praise
Years ago, we used to sing a song that will still be familiar to a lot of you: "We shall enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart, we shall enter His courts with praise. We shall say this is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice, for He has made us glad." The pages that awaited me in today's Inspire Praise journaling Bible, reminded me of this song. I invite you to sing along as we decorate these two pages, bringing honour and praises to a very deserving God and Father. On an arty level, we will be using a very limited palette to colour the pages with pencils and fineliners. It will also be the first time that we use stickers to decorate our pages. It is also the first time we will not treat an entire page with gesso, but only the journaling on the page. Read on to find out more.
Blog 10 - Bible Journaling - Psalm 145 Inspired Praise
Psalm 22: 3 tells us that God is enthroned in our praises. Revelations has repeated references to the praises brought to God by the twenty-four elders and the other living creatures, where God sits on His throne. In Luke 19:40, Jesus tells the Pharisees that if the people did not sing God's praises, that the stones would cry out to do so. The two pages we are dealing with today in our Inspire Praise Bible, is dedicated to praising God. I wanted to make these pages loud, using the brightest colours possible, so as to make it seem as if the visual pages were also lifting their 'voices' to shout out God's praises. In this blog I share tips for how to achieve this. But first I wish to share a poem with you, that was written by me, to bring praise and honour and glory to God. The poem is titled 'God's Holy Name.'
Blog 11 - Bible Journaling - Notes & Introduction to the NLT
We have set off on a rather exciting journey of Bible journaling and in the process we have been given loads of really pretty pages to deal with. We now come to some less exciting pages, that I believe most people simply skip over when it comes to their personal Bible Study. I have always ardently advocated to people attending Bible Studies or home cell meetings with me, to devote proper attention to these pages. The pages in question, are the ones dedicated to explanations on what prompted a particular translation and how the translators dealt with certain translation issues and problems. If you read these pages, you will have a much clearer understanding of why different Bible translations vary from each other, and you will be better able to find the translation that appeals best to you. However, having said that, I am also an ardent advocate for not reading a single translation. I prefer to encourage people to read a variety of translations, in as many languages as they have mastered. From an artistic point of view, these are certainly some of the worst pages to encounter in the Bible, but I will show you how I tackled them in my journaling Bible in the hopes of inspiring you to spend more time on them yourself.
Blog 12 - Bible Journaling - Translation of the NLT
We have reached a section of the Bible which I consider very important to take note of. On the two pages facing us today in the Inspire Praise Bible, we deal with the translation issues that the NLT translators had to deal with. Should they translate word for word, or should they do it thought for thought? Or perhaps, they should compromise between the two instead. But if they do that, how would they let readers know when and where they did so? These pages also explain the process that the NLT underwent to reach the form we read it in today, after its initial publication in 1996. We learn that the intention with the translation was to render it in a format that would be easy to understand if it were read aloud, and what motivated this intention. For those of us who are familiar with the original texts from which the Bible was translated, a small section is included to inform us of the texts used. Then, right at the bottom of the second page, a discussion is started on translation issues, but we will look at these in greater detail in the next blog.
Blog 13 - Bible Journaling - Translation Issues & the NLT
It is time to take a detailed look at some of the translation issues that the NLT Bible translators were confronted with. There are numerous terms and terminology that time has rendered beyond our grasp and understanding, which still occurs in the older translations of the Bible. Do we keep those, or do we render them in more modern equivalences? This is an issue that every modern translator of the Bible is confronted with. Here is a list of the issues that needed to be dealt with by the translators of the NLT:
- Weights and Measures;
- Currency;
- Dates;
- Time;
- Meanings of names;
- Idioms and phrases;
- Metaphors;
- Poetry that differs widely from the poetry used in our culture and language;
- Terminology;
- Gender;
- Pronouns;
- The gender of God.
Blog 14 - Bible Journaling - Names & Footnotes in the NLT
All we wish to do, is enjoy the Bible and do some arty decorating in its pages, yet we still have a few more pages to deal with that require careful scrutiny and reading, if we wish to truly understand the texts we will be dealing with. Today, we take a look at pages A16 and A17 of the Inspire Praise Bible. The first issue that we need to look at, is the rendition of God's names. As the Bible was produced by a number of authors, over the span of centuries, in a variety of languages, it goes without saying that there was no overseeing editor to ensure consistency. Different authors used different names to call God by. To further complicate matters, the dynamic nature of language also has to be contended with. Spelling and language rules changed with the passage of time and modern translators need to deal with these inconsistencies. The NLT provides a very short discussion on this topic, looking at names in general, and God's names specifically. The name YHVH and Christ is looked at specifically and you can read more about this yourself. Suffice it to say, that I was happy to find that the translators had opted to stick to the general rule of rendering YHVH as LORD, as has become somewhat of a general rule, making it easy for readers to spot it in the text, without complicating reading with foreign language words. This is of course a personal preference of mine, and you may differ from me on this.
We then finally learn about the use of footnotes in the NLT, which gives clarification of all of the issues discussed in the preceding pages on the translation of the Bible. Here is a list of issues covered in the footnotes, although you may to choose to read these pages for further clarification:
- Literal translations;
- Alternative renditions;
- Textual Variants, especially from the Textus Receptus,
- Quotations between testaments;
- Cultural and historical information to enlighten the text;
- Wordplay in proper names.
"We pray that the New Living Translation will overcome some of the barriers of history, culture and language that have kept people from reading and understanding God's Word."
Blog 15 - Bible Journaling - The Translation Team of the NLT
We have been looking at the issues that the translators of the NLT were confronted with, as we worked our way through the opening pages of our Inspire Praise Journaling Bible. The only question that still begs answering, before we can start our study of the text of the Bible, is who these translators of the NLT were, that we kept referring to in previous blogs. The Inspire Praise Bible devotes two whole pages to identifying these translators by names and associations. This is an important inclusion, even though the list may not have much meaning to most of us. Any author or translator arrives at a text with a set of preconceived ideas and opinions. It is important to be able to spot these, which is only possible, if a translator/author can be identified and investigated. Furthermore, it is comforting to know that no single translator worked in isolation from the rest of the team. There were overseers and group discussions for every step of the way, making the final product less likely to be riddled with personal ideas and opinions, than would be the case otherwise. So, even though we may have very little interest in these two pages, it is clear that it should be included as an essential insert.
As I am typing this, I can not help but think of some of the authors of the Biblical texts. Think of Paul. Here was a man well versed in the law, a zealot and a rigid disciplinarian. When we read the letters written by him, we see his personality in the text. No doubt, that is partly why God chose to use him to write those particular letters. I also think of Luke, a medical doctor, whose meticulous attention to detail and record keeping, has left us the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, two essential books to understanding the time of Christ and the period that followed immediately afterwards. Once again, God knew to choose the right person for the task. Knowing who the author of a text is, can shed some light on the text. Just so, knowing who the translator of a text was, could shed some light on the text. And, just so, knowing that the translator was part of a much bigger team, can provide us with peace of mind that fewer personal issues made its way into the text, than would be the case otherwise.
You may also wish to refer to two previously published blogs which will help you to make more sense of how the Bible came to be, and why it looks the way it does today.
Blog 1 - Bybel Legkaart: Sinopsis van Bybelkunde Deel 1
Om sin te maak van die Bybel, is nie altyd 'n maklike taak nie. Ek begin vandag 'n reeks wat die studie van Bybelkunde so effens oopbreek en die algemene leser meer inligting gee. In die eerste dele van die reeks, fokus ons op die totstandkoming van die Bybel, asook verskillende metodes waarop die Bybel gelees en geïnterpreteer kan word. Vanaf die derde deel sal ons dan die Bybelboeke een vir een bekyk.
Blog 2 - Bybel Legkaart: Sinopsis van Bybelkunde Deel 2
Ons het vroëer met 'n reeks begin waarin ons poog om die inhoud van die Bybel te ontsluit op 'n manier wat dit makliker om die boek te verstaan. In die eerste dele van die reeks, fokus ons op die totstandkoming van die Bybel, asook verskillende metodes waarop die Bybel gelees en geïnterpreteer kan word. Vanaf die derde deel sal ons dan die Bybelboeke een vir een bekyk.
Inspire PRAISE South Africa edition copyright 2017 by Christian Art Publishers, PO Box 1599, Vereeniging, 1930, RSA. All rights reserved.
Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.
Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
Jy kan Kom Ons Kleur Tuinstories In hier koop.
Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
You can follow Miekie's daily Bible Study blog, Bybel Legkaart, here in English & Afrikaans.
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