Bonus Resources from last week’s post, PLUS Discover Illuminated Scripture Journals!

Friends!  Before we dive in to learning about some way cool journaling ideas, I have TWO terrific resources to piggyback onto the book we discussed last week, Praying the Bible by Donald S. Whitney. Both are excellent accompaniments to this book.

The first is thanks to Don’s friend, Bryant Huang in California, who was so moved by his book, that get this: He developed a FREE APP for praying the Psalms called “Five Psalms.” Again, it’s FREE and available for both iOS and Android. (This is what it looks like below.)

It automatically opens to the first Psalm of the Day, and then you just swipe right to see the other four. I learned you can also go to the “settings” part of the app and click on a button to where it will add the proverb of the day. As of this writing, today’s the 29th of April. I downloaded the app, opened it, and there, after the five psalms, was Proverbs 29! This is AWESOME and we do NOT have to do the math I spoke of last week. (Cue the violins.)

Additionally, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) requested Don do a brief (4-6 minute) prayer time on Tuesdays and Thursdays, praying through one of the Psalms of the Day. It’s available both on the seminary’s Facebook and Twitter feeds, as well as on Don’s (Facebook, Twitter). I just watched one from April 23rd, and it is absolutely marvelous as well as a delightful teaching tool on prayer.

Also from last week’s post, there’s one clarification. I implied one must read all five psalms and study/pray through them accordingly.  I missed one little word that makes a world of difference.  

Our author, Don Whitney says, “While reading five psalms a day is a great practice that many enjoy, that’s not what I’m advocating here. What I’m suggesting is that you take half a minute to quickly scan five psalms and pick one of those five to pray through.” 

How did I miss that?!!!  That makes me feel so much better!  Apparently I may have scanned some of the book!  Apologies...

Now, let’s get to some journals I believe you all will FLIP over…Thanks to a lovely Christmas gift from my friend, Meredith, I discovered beautiful, illuminated Scripture Journals. Allow me to show you what you can do with these!

The folks at Crossway in Wheaton, Illinois are to be commended for creating beautiful journals you can use based on your choice of any book of the Bible!  Plus, thanks to artist Dana Tanamachi, each cover is unique to the book of the Bible.  Within the pages of the journals, there are additional gold ink designs, artistic wording of Scripture, etc.

Last week, when we discussed Don Whitney’s book on praying the Bible through Scripture, I immediately thought these journals would be the perfect way to do exactly that. I jumped and ordered one of the journals on the Psalms. It’s hefty, covering all 150 of them!

Each journal has a passage of Scripture on the left-hand page with the right-hand page being blank for your notes.  Each is in the English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible. The Translation Oversight Committee tells us that the ESV “is an ‘essentially literal’ translation that seeks as far as possible to reproduce the meaning and structure of the original text and the personal style of each Bible writer.”

The Committee begins with,

While reading thru’ these journals, the Committee suggests we:

The translators remind us that,

(For a mini-Bible study, look up the above references and see how spot on the Committee is to make these exciting claims with beautiful Scripture to back them up.)

Pastor Jon Weece, from Southland Christian Church in Lexington, Kentucky shared at the beginning of this year he’s reading a chapter from two books of the Bible to last him a full year.  He’s reading the book of Luke, which has 24 chapters and the book of Acts, which has 28 chapters, making 52, for one for each week of the year. Another good idea to fuel our minds.

Whatever your preference, try out one of these illuminated Scripture journals.  One thing you should not say, is “Oh, these are too pretty to write in!”.  They are beautiful, granted, but what a wide-open opportunity to try soaking in God’s Word.  They’re also super affordable, so give it a whirl!

‘Til next time!

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the page above are “affiliate links.”