The book of James has been the focus of an initiative called 'Bible Month' where, for the month of June, earlier this year, people were encouraged to spend #30_days_with_James, as part of reconnecting with the Bible! (I know churches that work with the material provided for it in other months too!) For me, this is what Bible journalling is all about! It enables me to re-connect with the words in my Bible in a different way, and remember it as my memory entwines the motion of making the art, the visuals of seeing the art and the auditory processing of my reading the words. This spread actually came out of me reading through the book a few times for a couple of nights, underlining key verses, trying to take in the whole of the book (it's only a short one - why not give it a go!) and grasp what it was the writer was so passionately saying. I was then talking about it with a friend, just sharing what I'd found exciting and challenging - when we find something exciting, we want to talk about it, and others pick up on that excitement too! My friend then actually wrote a song which grew out of one of the phrases I'd used in talking about it, and this art grew out of that song, in a sketchbook, which I then transferred over into my Bible. Particularly that phrase; "Let's give faith its fangs back"! The book of James is a challenge to each of us to live out our faith. To "be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving ourselves". To make sure that our faith in who Jesus is pervades every interaction we have with people and every decision we make. Faith and love and hope should be strong and powerful; they should be beacons in a world where despair and hate and doubt usually pervade; they should be the hand reaching out to someone's utter depth of need; and they should be a loud and strong proclamation of the good God who made all we see and treasures each person around us so intimately! If we don't live out our faith it becomes lame, tame and a joke. Let's give faith its fangs back and live like we actually believe what we profess to believe!
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