Bible Journaling: Book of James

In the book of James, our Bible journaling will be an act of worship to thank God for the amazing characteristics of the Word. Isn’t it wonderful that there is something new to discover about the Bible every day? 

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

Bible journaling tip: 

In some Bibles, like the one in the photo above there are short devotionals inbetween the Bible text. Have you ever considered writing your own and adding them into your Bible? When God gives you understanding of a certain concept in the Bible, or if you have experienced a miracle that relates to some verses, write it down and add that into your Bible as a tool to remember the goodness of God.

LOOK UP(information): encounter God through the Scripture 

Author:

The author of this book was Jesus’ blood family, his brother, James, also known as Jacob (his name got confused in translation for many years!). He was a leader in the first Christian community, or church, ever. 

Audience:

Even though he does say that this letter is written to the Israelites, the letter reads very different from for example the letters of Paul that were addressed to a specific community. This letter is valuable and applicable to all believers everywhere - yes, even you!

History:

The way that Jesus summarized the Law runs through this whole letter: Love God, Love your neighbor. Can you mark all the places where this is mentioned by making a star in the margins?

Genre:

This letter does not address specific issues or problems faced by a single church, but rather it contains a lot of Jacob’s teachings.

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

Key verse:

James 1:25 NIV

But those who look intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continue in it – not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it – they will be blessed in what they do.

Inspiration:

Do you want to be blessed in what you do? Then live in the law, come alive in Jesus, abide in the vine (John 15). The Bible gives such clear instructions sometimes, yet we want to confuse it with a lot of questions. I heard it said once that we were created to be mirrors and not calculators. We do not need to understand God, we need to reflect Him.

LOOK OUT(transformation)  -  respond with creative worship action  

Drawing prompt:

Illustrate the 12 teachings about Christian living that are given in this book in chapters 2-5.

You can decide if you want to do each on a separate page as large artworks, or if you want to create small pictures on the same page that reads kind of like a comic strip. 

Bible Journey with HolyJot:

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

• How are we likely to treat the rich man who comes to worship? (James 2:2-3)
• What are we when we make distinction between rich and poor? (James 2:4)
• What two things belong to the poor who love Jesus Christ? (James 2:5)

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

 Writing prompt:

The teachings of Jacob are influenced a lot by 2 other teachings in the Bible. The first is Jesus’ teachings from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). And the second is a few poems from Proverbs (chapters 1-9). You can see if you can find references to these throughout this letter.

What we are going to be doing for today’s writing prompt is to write our own summary / reflection on these 2 teachings. Read both, and then write a short paragraph by completing the following sentences…

• What stood out for me was…
• This means that believers need to live…
• God is shown as…

Does your summary / reflection resemble the book of James at all?

Prayer:

God, I want to thank you for the book of James. Help me to always see people through the lense of the Gospel and that I might never forget how far you have brought me. Uproot any love of money that exists within my heart, so that there can be space for you to do whatever you want to do in and through me. Let my response to this text be worship unto you!