Thessalonians Words Challenge ~ My Set Up

My Set Up

Today I thought I would share a bit about my set up for going through the Thessalonians Words challenge. I like to print out any passage or book I'm going to study so I can make the marks that help me walk through the Word. Making observation marks helps me "see" my way to understanding and act like road markers on a map. I'm going to go through these types of observation steps as we advance through the challenge. 

My basic supplies are:

• A print out of the book and a print out of the challenge calendar.
• An A5 journal with dotted lines to keep my study notes in.
• Lots of colored markers. I like the Staedtler Triplus Fineliners best.
• An art journal. I'm going to continue to use the Leuchtturm 1917 Journal I've been using all year for my word of the year journal.

I mentioned in my last post that I am expanding this challenge to offer ways to go deeper for anyone who is interested. With each Words Challenge I offer a significant verse and a Bible study devotion to go along with each word. But, in all honesty, my heart is to see people learn to dig in and discover what God's Word says on their own, and to find the joy and growth that comes along with it. 

Let me explain briefly. Many times we will study the Bible using a book or study guide that someone else has written. There is nothing wrong with that! But what we are doing is taking in someone else's interpretation and opinion of what the Bible says and what the theology or doctrine means. And again, there is nothing wrong with that. However, we are shaped by their opinion. Instead we can learn observation and interpretation skills, take what we learn and compare it to what scholars and teachers say, and then make an informed decision on meaning. When we learn to dig in and study God's Word for ourselves and do the work of interpretation a number of things result:

• We become more biblically literate. That time and energy we put into observation and interpretation and determining meaning results in the Word of God going deep into our hearts and minds, and we then KNOW the Bible. Intimately! Bible Study teacher and author, Jen Wilkin says, "The heart cannot love what the mind does not know".
• We are shaped and transformed by God's Word. Now, transformation can come from using other's Bible study guides and books, but when you dig in and chew and digest the Word of God you gain more than knowledge and you become transformed. Over and over! You grow to know the Father, Son, and Spirit more deeply. And more than the purpose of our own transformation, the purpose of the Bible is that we grow to know who God is more intimately. It's His book. We grow to know Him more and we are transformed..
• We find a joy in reading and studying the Bible. You may not get pumped up about every observation step or tool, but some of them will really connect with you and an excitement about studying the Bible will grow. That excitement will draw you back to studying God's Word again and again. One lady in a study methods class I led wasn't really connecting with the tools we were learning. That is until we went through a passage and made a list of all the things being contrasted in the passage. For her, breaking down what was being said into this list, made the Word of God open up more clearly to her, and her excitement began to grow. I love finding repeated words and finding out what message the author is communicating by emphasizing these words over and over. Along with that, word studies are a fun way of discovery for me. In fact, it is from those passions that these Words Challenges were created!

Would you join me in going deeper with this challenge? If so, I have created a new section here on my site. Bible Study Tips and Techniques. You'll find it at the top of the page on the menu.

As we go through the Words Challenge I will introduce different steps and techniques for Bible Study. Then each step or technique will have a dedicated page on the Bible Study page that you can either print out or refer back to. My steps and techniques are not much different than other Inductive Bible Study methods. Over the years as I have learned from others, my own style of study has developed. Without having to purchase numerous study books and Bible resource books or software, I have found the tools and resources needed on the Internet, and I will introduce my favorites to you and help you understand how to use them to expand and deepen your study. There are already some steps posted on the page. Check them out!

If you are up for adding the Bible study to the Words Challenge, then I am excited! But please don't feel it is necessary. You can still follow the Word Challenge with the daily Scripture reading and Bible Study devotions posted on my blog. And with both I hope you'll respond creatively and share your responses in the private Words Challenge Facebook group and/or on Instagram (#thessalonianswords).

We begin on Monday July 6th!

Click photo for printable PDF.

2020 Vision Board & Moving Forward

2020 Vision Board & Moving Forward

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."                   Soren Kierkegaard

Generally I make a vision board for my word of the year earlier in the season, usually in February or March. It's a way of visualizing my intentions for my word through the year. But this has not been anything like a normal year. So, instead of just a board looking at the year ahead, I am both looking back  to see how I have lived out my word, and then looking ahead at where I feel called to go in the rest of the year. This is our theme this month in our Living Your Word of the Year Facebook Group, looking back in order to move forward. This is a regular practice for me. A few times a year at least, I will read back through my written journals and my art journals to see where I am in this journey of spiritual transformation. And generally, God will use this time of looking back as a time for me to reflect and evaluate where I need to focus. I wrote about the start of this looking back process in my post two weeks ago, which you can read here. 

I have made a vision board for my word of the year for quite a few years. In fact, it's one of my favorite practices of the year. I usually put them on an artist canvas and display them in my home studio/office. They are visual reminders of my journey.

I begin by going through my collection of magazine pages and other ephemera that I have torn out and saved because the image or words stood out. I enjoy going through my magazines every few months and tearing out the pages, and the bonus is it keeps my magazine baskets from overflowing! Even though I read a lot online these days, I have not lost the enjoyment of holding a magazine in my hand and leafing through it.

Next I like to cover the edges of my canvas with gesso covered book pages. I do this in part because I don't frame the canvases and the papers add a subtle decoration to the edges.

Over the past few weeks I have looked back over the beginning of the year, and especially the months since we began experiencing the crisis of the coronavirus pandemic. In recent weeks the horrifying events of racial injustice that have taken place have been added to my time of reflection. All of this is in my heart and mind as I began to think about what the future may look like. There is so much to think about right now and so much that is unknown about how life will be lived in the months, and maybe even years, ahead of us. Below I have some reflection questions that helped me and that may be of use for you as well.

• Re-connect with your "why" for selecting your word for this year. Have the circumstances of the past few months changed your "why" at all?
• How have your life values led you through this time?
• What have you held onto? What have you had to let go of?
• As you look ahead, what are you sensing God calling you to? What might He be calling you to leave behind as you move forward? What might He be calling you to keep in your future life from these days?
• What have you been thankful for?
• What has brought joy? What has caused fear or disappointment?
• What do you need more of? What do you need less of?
• Are there areas in your life right now that require more trust in God and His promises?
• How has your faith been? On shaky ground? On a firm foundation? What has this time of crisis shown you about your relationship with God?

Let me also offer two great questions I read recently. The first was in a newsletter from Shelly Miller. She is an author and has an online group called The Sabbath Society. Here is her question for reflection:

"If the previous chapters of your life prepare you for what lies ahead, how might God be using your right now circumstances as preparation for what comes next?"

The other question was posted in our Facebook group last week and comes from Suzi Stringfield Denis.

"How is God using this time to transform me?" 

This week our prompt in our Living Your Word of the Year group is to spend some time reflecting on the past few months and thinking about where God may be leading you now with your word. Try making a vision board from that time of reflection. This project may take some time to work through. In the next few weeks we will offer more reflection questions that will help us evaluate the goals and intentions we set at the beginning of the year, and seeking God, will help us move forward in the second half of the year.

My vision board process surprises me each time. As I go through the process of cutting out letters and leafing through magazine pages I don't immediately see how they will come together. But once I start laying things out on the canvas the pieces start to fall nicely into place.

I hope you'll give a vision board for your word of the year a try. If you do, please share it in our Facebook group and/or on Instagram with the hashtag #livingyourword2020.

Join us in the Living Your Word Community

My friends Bernice Hopper, and Valerie Sjodin, and I share insights through blog posts for creatively living a word of the year. In our Facebook group, we encourage one another by posting questions and prompts to inspire living out a word focus, keeping a journal etc. It is a safe place to ask for prayer and support. If you would like to connect with others in creative ways about living your word, you can ask to join our Living Your Word of the Year 2020 by clicking on the link below.

URL for Facebook group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/livingyourwordoftheyear/ 

Hashtag for Instagram:  #livingyourword2020

Check out their blogs:

Bernice: https://newlycreative.com

Valerie: https://valeriesjodin.com/blog/ 

A Season For Everything

Welcome October! This is one of my favorite months. The change of season is so visible and vivid during the month of October, with cooler weather and colorful leaves. There is a rhythm in nature's seasons that is predictable and constant year after year. Seasons in our lives are not always as visible or predictable as the seasons in nature are. But we do experience seasons in life.

                           

My daughter recently mentioned that this year is her 20th high school reunion. That took my breath away! I remember the season I was in when she graduated. I was so surprised at how hard it hit me. Her four years of high school had gone by so fast, and then it was done. My little girl had become a strong, independent young woman and all of a sudden my role in life changed. I struggled with that for quite a while, even with little things like not following the school year calendar after 12 years of living by it. Gradually I adjusted, but it was a season of change.

"For everything there is a season,
    a time for every activity under heaven.
A time to be born and a time to die.
    A time to plant and a time to harvest.
A time to kill and a time to heal.
    A time to tear down and a time to build up.
A time to cry and a time to laugh.
    A time to grieve and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
    A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
A time to search and a time to quit searching.
    A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear and a time to mend.
    A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate.
    A time for war and a time for peace.

What do people really get for all their hard work? I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end." 

Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 New Living Translation (NLT)

In this passage in the book of Ecclesiastes we are reminded that all seasons - those in nature and those in life -are determined by God. Seasons in our life are not without purpose, for it is often through the change of seasons in our life that growth and maturity and transformation take place.

I am currently reading a book by Jan Johnson called Abundant Simplicity. A book about being intentional in ordering our life in order to live in a deeper, more abundant relationship with God. As we think about transformation and how the seasons of our life can shape us for growth let me share a few quotes from the book that may help us in our perspective about seasons and change.

"As we are able to converse with God at a deeper level of maturity, we have the capacity to hear more complex things….God tends to be gentle, telling us only what we can stand to hear in that moment of our growth…." ~ Jan Johnson, Abundant Simplicity, p30-31

"Transformative growth works in a spiral...As we're ready, God allows basic issues to resurface, but each time he lets us see ourselves more clearly so that better and deeper pruning work can be done. If we're wise, we'll take notes about what we're learning so we can look back and remember what we've learned when we work through it with God the next time." ~ Jan Johnson, Abundant Simplicity, p32-33.

Thinking of transformation in a linear manner often leaves me somewhat discouraged when I face an issue that I thought I had dealt with in the past. So I find encouragement in Jan's view that transformation and spiritual growth is more of a spiral, that when these issues arise again, It is not failure, it is simply time to work on them at a deeper level. I also find great comfort in this. We serve a God who cares deeply for us, so deeply as to not allow us to be too overwhelmed in the trials and life experiences we face, until He sees in us growth that enables us to handle more. God's loving pruning enables us to grow and mature in Christ's likeness. Our trust in His faithfulness and love enable us to endure, knowing that He loves us and has our best interests at heart.

"No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it." 1 Corinthians 10:13 NRSV

This month in our faithart group, Everyday Journals, we are taking a look at the season of life we are in - A SEASON FOR _________. For the month of October I have decided to use the contrasts found in Ecclesiastes 3:2-8 metaphorically, as self-examination questions, a way of contemplation and opening myself to God for His loving examination. Join me if you like! There will be information at the end of this post on how to join our group.

My first fall leaf for this season.

The first contrast is seen in verse 2: "A time to be born and a time to die".
Throughout the Bible birth and death are used metaphorically for the spiritual life. Scripture calls us to be "born again" (John 3:16), referring to the need to be born anew spiritually as we commit to following Jesus Christ as both Savior and Lord. There are also numerous references in the Bible to death as a voluntary act of giving up our former ways of living (see Ephesians 4:22 and Romans 6:11 for examples) and embracing the new life God calls us to live. With those metaphors in mind, I am using the following questions to dig deeper:

• What does God want to birth in me? 
• What needs to be renewed? To be born again or afresh? 
• What in my life, my heart, my mind needs renewal?
• What must I die to for this change to occur? A habit or practice or attitude to give up, eliminate, or change.
• What needs to be removed to make room for it?
• What practices (spiritual or otherwise) might I engage in or abstain from that may help me connect deeper with God's call to be renewed?

Join Our Inspirational Facebook Group

Bernice Hopper, Valerie Sjodin and I are using one journal to record events, experiences and relationships and  to explore our word’s meaning in visual and fun ways. We are each blogging about our experiences and our art. If you would like to connect with others about creatively organizing your word, your ideas, thoughts, prayers, events, or your projects all in one journal, you are invited to join our Facebook group: Everyday Journals – Living Your Word of the Year.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/203309083575277/

Hashtags on Instagram: #everydayjournals2018, #livingyourword2018

Check out the other blogs:

Bernice: http://www.newlycreative.com/

Valerie: https://valeriesjodin.com/blog/

Journey of Transformation

I love the beginning of the year. Somehow it feels like, with the change of the calendar page, we can leave behind the past year and have a fresh start on January 1st. Whole industries revolve their marketing in January around this idea of fresh starts with the new year. We resolve to lose weight, gain control over our finances. organize our stuff better, change bad habits, add good habits...and we're going to start it all on January 1 with our New Year Resolutions. AND the companies and consultants and sales people in those industries are going to graciously help us overcome these issues..for a small fee.
But, usually after a few days or weeks of trying to push forward all this change for our fresh start in the new year, we begin to fade. We begin to slip back into our comfort zone and our bad habits. In Take Me Deeper this month our theme has been transformation. We are looking at God's desire that our lives be transformed into the likeness of His Son, Jesus Christ. And our need to be willing, vulnerable and submissive to the process.
Personally, my favorite metaphor for the spiritual transformation that God calls us to is journey. Thinking in terms of a journey helps me keep in mind that spiritual transformation is a process. One that I will be on for a lifetime. I think this is why I read authors who write about spiritual transformation and spiritual disciplines -which are really just tools to help us along the journey. Some of my favorite authors on this topic are Terry Wardle, Ruth Haley Barton, Robert Mulholand Jr., David Benner. Jerry Bridges, Jan Johnson...I could go on and on.
I recently read a quote in a book by Terry Wardle that used this metaphor of journey for spiritual transformation and fit in well with our studies in Take Me Deeper. I put the quote on a page for my TMD journal:

The quote reads: 

"Real change occurs as Christians respond to the call to journey with Jesus, meeting God in the particulars of day to day life. It is not so important that one knows every detail about the path they will take in life. But what one discovers about oneself and God along the way is critically important to the process of transformation and change. In this process of discovery, the pilgrim allows the Spirit of Christ to redeem and recreate him in very deep and important ways. This change demands  surrender and willingness, foundational responses to the call of Jesus Christ. Surrender on the journey involves laying down personal agenda and self-interest. Willingness is the prerequisite for picking up the cross of Christ - the losing of one's life so necessary to finding true life,eternal life." ~Terry Wardle.

My pages for weeks two and three of Take Me Deeper:

What kind of a journey are you on? Or do you have a different metaphor that you prefer for transformation?

Meandering 1.13.2015 and DLP

I am finally getting around to posting the last of my 2014 Documented Life Projects pages. I must admit that I am quite pleased with myself. I have admitted in the past that I am a great started of projects but not always a very good finisher. I completed the full year of weekly pages for DLP! I'm so thrilled!!!

Week 48 page spread

Week 49 page spread

Week 50 page spread

Week 51

Week 52

Last page

Dlp Journal Volume 2

This has been a great project and I have made a lot of art friends in the group. I'm going to follow along with DLP 2015 and the new group Documented Faith. I may not complete each week's prompts since Take Me Deeper and Logos365 will be my main focus. I plan on incorporating them into my Take Me Deeper journal which I think will be in four volumes this year, one for each quarter.

Take Me Deeper WEEK 2:

Our devotion this week focused on our need for vulnerability in spiritual transformation. Our culture views vulnerability as a weakness of character. But I think being vulnerable takes great strength. We risk opening ourselves up and revealing who we are, trusting that God will work in and through our weakness. Our passage was 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.

My Word for 2015

It's no secret on this blog that I continually struggle with issues of burnout. I think it may go hand-in-hand with the ebb and flow of life in full time ministry - or at least in my life in ministry. In the past few years this struggle has become more and more evident and, at times, incapacitating. It is a huge part of why I got connected to art and to art journaling as a way to help create balance and energy. At times my schedule is packed full of activities and events. In the midst of this there are kids and people with needs that need ministering to. My emotional, mental and spiritual energy can get drained and I have tried to find ways over the years to keep this all in balance.

In the past year, with the help of some spiritual companions, I believe I have started to really get a handle on understanding what I need to keep my energy and my outlook in balance and have started to put some practices in place that help. So, I felt the Lord telling me it was time for renewal in 2015. It sure feels like it's time! A negative attitude and outlook has crept in over the past few years and I haven;t felt like myself as a result of that. But slowly in the past year there have been some shifts.

In a sense I have been renewing my mind over the past year and am anticipating renewal in many areas in the year ahead. 

I posted my page with my theme passage of Scripture last week, but am posting it again with some explanation this time.

There are quite a few places in the Bible where renewal is talked about, but the passage in Isaiah 61:1-4 really connected with me. Jesus quotes this passage from Isaiah and applies it to himself in Luke 4:16-20. This passage describes a Savior who heals brokenness in whatever form or circumstances it is found in us - poor, captive, in darkness, mourning, grieving, despairing - He heals us. In healing He rebuilds, restores, and renews our lives. I'm looking to be renewed this year. To have my energy (emotional, mental and physical) renewed. To have my passion and vision for ministry renewed. To have my health renewed. To have my spirit renewed. To have my emotional equilibrium renewed. It all starts with having my mind renewed and this I cannot do myself. I can only place myself before God and position myself through spiritual disciplines and practices in Christ, ready and willing for transformation.

I completed a few of the Logos365 prompts we posted on the HKC site:

Definition page

Goals page

In order for habits to change and transformation to take place we need to be intentional and set goals. I decided to select 5 areas where I feel I need renewal to take place. I am going to set small, manageable goals monthly in some of those areas. It is said that it takes 6 weeks to make or break a habit and that slow is best in order to see lasting change. I'm interested in lifestyle changes not simply in behavior modification. I think the key to change is in making small baby steps that lead to lasting change, rather than trying to look at the full year and then giving up not too far into it. That may have been why I was able to complete the 52 weekly art calendar pages for the Documented Life Project when I usually struggle to complete projects. It was easier to just look at each week as it came rather than thinking about a full year of weekly projects and trying to plan it out.

To make things more manageable I am combining my Logos 365 word projects in my Take Me Deeper art journal.

Are you participating in one of the many word-of-the-year projects? If so, share your word with me in the comment section below. :)