Bible Journaling: 1 Peter

In this book of 1 Peter, we will see more examples of how the love and life of Jesus propelled the first believers to live. Encountering Jesus is like undergoing a complete transformation, we cannot remain the same. He loves us too much to leave us as He found us. 

For a broader view of this book of the Bible, we encourage you to watch this video:

Bible journaling tip: 

In some households a single Bible is shared by the whole family, or in some they might only have a few pages from a Bible that are still being kept safe and read over and over again. In other households each individual has more than two Bibles. When we think about Bible journaling, our Bible is like our canvas and we allow the Word to come to life on the pages. You can Bible journal in a Bible and then donate it to a hospice / charity bookstore. The next person who reads that Bible will be blessed by your beautiful artworks and it can minister to them or even help them understand something!

LOOK UP(information): encounter God through the Scripture 

Author:

The author of this book was named Simon when he became Jesus’ disciple. One day, Jesus called him Peter meaning “rock” and that was how his name changed! You can read about this in Matthew 16:18.

Audience:

This letter was written and sent out as a type of ‘broadcast message’ to all the churches in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) who were facing opposition. If you could send a message to all the churches in your country today, what would it say?

History:

We read about the Israelite story and God’s promises to Abraham in the beginning of our journey through the Bible. Peter is using a lot of words from those promises here, and he is applying them to Gentiles - new believers, who were not part of God’s chosen people the Israelites. Why do you think he does this?

Genre:

This letter focuses a lot on the word ‘suffering’. What does suffering mean? What does suffering look like in your life right now? What does God say about our suffering? Is our suffering from God?

LOOK IN(revelation): contemplate / reflect on our own lives

Key verse:

1 Peter 3:15 NIV

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. 

Inspiration:

This verse makes us wonder: how can we always be prepared to explain to anyone the joy that we have in Christ? How can we live in a way that we are ready to share? Are people asking you the reason for your hope? If not, are you living as if the Gospel is true? We need to remind ourselves to be hopeful and to be prepared to share that hope.

LOOK OUT(transformation): respond with creative worship action  

Drawing prompt:

• Layer 1: 

Take a page and write on it a few key words to describe suffering, shame and sin that you still deal with. If you want to write more than key words, you could write your feelings about this or a prayer about this. 

• Layer 2: 

Then, paint a picture of the refining fire that Peter speaks about in this letter. Paint the fire so that it completely covers the words. You can use any color you prefer, but try to add gold to show that it is a holy fire.

• Layer 3: 

Then, take a marker that is a different colour like black or white and write on top of the paint a few words that describe what God brings into our lives. God never wastes our suffering. It always brings a full reward. 

Bible Journey with HolyJot:

Here are some questions / prompts provided by the HolyJot community. 

• What should we as Christians lay aside, according to the apostle Peter? (I Peter 2:1)
• As newborn babes in Christ, what should we desire, so we may grow by it? (I Peter 2:2)
• What does the apostle Peter compare every true believer to? (I Peter 2:4-5)

Follow this link to dive into this book with an online Bible Study group.

Writing prompt:

Peter starts out this book with a song that we can read in chapter 1:3-12. In it, he calls all kinds of suffering a ‘purifying fire’ and completely changes the perspective that people usually have on hard times. Read his song and use that as a starting point to write your own. 

Elaborate on this idea that suffering produces an eternal reward and how this perspective can make our burden light and turn our sorrow into dancing. You can also weave the story of the cross into your song to add a line of gratitude and thankfulness that is running through it.

Prayer:

God, I want to thank you for the book of 1 Peter. Help me to truly grasp what it means to live life as a Christian and give me ideas by your Holy Spirit for how I can faithfully live out this message. Let my response to this text be worship unto you!