Devoted to sharing the Word of God - in uplifting, informative and encouraging posts.
" It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." John 6:63

Wednesday 7 October 2020

Hiding God's Word in Our Heart - Colour Coding Of Bible

A thought from today's Daily Light (then I will share how I colour code a Bible). 

*****
The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way. 
What man is he that feareth the LORD? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose. Psa. 25:912

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; 
and lean not unto thine own understanding. 
In all thy ways acknowledge him, 
and he shall direct thy paths. Psa. 3:56

Thou wilt shew me the path of life: 
in thy presence is fulness of joy; 
at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Psa. 16:11

I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: 
I will guide thee with mine eye. Psa. 32:8

The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Prov. 4:18


Notice the parallel statements in each of those verses above, some have just two, some have more, it’s a common scripture theme.
Key verse:
"I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: 
I will guide thee with mine eye." Psa. 32:8
As believers we are incredibly blessed today. 
This is the thought impressed upon me as I've just in 3 months colour coded two full bibles, and one NT and Psalms in large print for a dear unsaved Catholic friend.
 Why are we so blessed, and perhaps so unappreciative of this blessing?

1. Upon salvation we received the indwelling Holy Spirit
" And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 

 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
John 14:16-17,26 

The believers in Old Testament, the disciples before Pentacost, early church believers and until printing press invention, were not thus blessed.

2. We have the whole overview of scripture from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21 in our hands today - in many, many forms, printed or digital word, or upon our walls, our calendars, etc.

REMEMBER: Given much, we are also accountable much!

" For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more."
Luke 12:48
So I must walk in this light or else I will judged for it.

"So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God."
  Romans 14:12

Why I colour code is simple. 
The why I colour code is because of the command I learnt as a prayer when first saved as a child over 50 years ago. 
"Open Thou mine eyes, that I might behold wondrous things out of Thy law” 
( Or out of Thy Word). Psalm 119:18 
..it opens my eyes to think more deeply about it as I read.
Now I will share in photos HOW I do it. 
I began to colour code when I first started reading the Bible all the way through in 1978. My desire was to read the bible through for every year I was saved. As I'd been saved twelve years when I started (my testimony here) I had a bit of catching up to do. 😄
Tip: Reading 4 chapters a day, takes you through bible in a year.
Ten chapters a day, you read through two and half times in a year

I did this in my youth, no TV, few other night time distractions, not a lot of money, so casting myself upon my Lord was good.
As I've now been saved over 50 years I've read my bible though for each year saved. About fifteen years ago I acheived my goal of a reading it through for each year saved. 

One thing I learnt this year in colour coding two and half bibles through in three months, is how VERY patient long-suffering our Father God is, how often we fail, yet He lovingly forgives and takes us back.

We shake our heads at the rebellious foolishness of Israel, etc., yet they had no indwelling spirit, no bible at their fingertips to keep them each day!!

So here below are some photos.  
**There are no hard and fast rules. 
A friend shared it back in 1978, and so I did it as I read. 
I've done some more detailed colours and themes than others, the ones I'm sharing are simpler than my own personal bibles. 
**Your bible, your needs are yours, be guided by the Spirit of God.

  “The vital relationship which the Christian has to the Bible is not that he worships the letter, but that the Holy Spirit makes the words of the Bible spirit and life to him.”
Oswald Chambers
  The Psychology of Redemption, 1066 L

My first bible is rather a hodge-podge... a learning curve. As you can see!
I did another after it, however it was too detailed so am not sharing it. 
This is my mother’s bible I did for her, a big print New Testament and Psalms. It’s a good starting place and I used it for some of bibles I did this year, varied it with my
Catholic friend’s New Testament and Psalms.
I changed the colour of Jesus’ themed verses from pink to purple to emphasise His deity as she read, or that was my prayer.
So this is her bible, it was a hardcover so I covered it. First is on inside.
Here I am working on it, using my mother's as guide. A small set-square is a handy tool.
And here is one of the full bibles, in two different bible publications.
This is the back page of one, they were mostly the same. I wrote an inscription page, too with special verses. I earnestly pray they’re read and not dust gatherers. 
This is in Isaiah, a double page then one section up close.
Isaiah and Hebrews are my favourite books.

A whole bible takes well over 100 hours, the NT Psalms took about 70 hours, but really, truly I have no exact idea. That’s a rough guess, some days were 8 hours of colouring, with breaks.
In one photo you can see I’d calculated how many pages to colour each day, think it was 130 pages each day to get it done by required time. In some books that’s easy, like Leviticus 😊 .. but not so easy in others.
Hopefully this will encourage you.
Digging into God’s word is the richest treasure we can mine on this earth.
None of those hours of colouring were wasted. 
My life, my heart is much richer for it. 
You get an overview of books as stories you will never see any other way!

God’s word never ever returns void.
May I also challenge you to read your bible all the way through, too?

As a Bible College lecturer said to us, in challenging us about reading our bibles through: 
“It’d be rather embarrassing to run into Obadiah in heaven and say, ‘Oops! Sorry, no, never managed to read your book, Obadiah’, especially as his book is only one chapter long!”
I’m sorry my posts are so sporadic in appearance, but perhaps after this one you will see where some of my time has gone. I hope to post a little more regularly from now, God enabling me. My health is always variable.
May our Lord God bless you if you’ve read all this way.
I’ll share a piece of calligraphy, a bookmark I made for a dear saint in our church who has a VERY heavy load at the moment.
Psalm 142:3
When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, THEN thou knewest my path.
A beautiful verse  
May this verse bless you also.
It will be worth it all when we see Jesus!

Thank you especially if you take the time to leave a comment, that’s deeply appreciated.
So very much.
Prayer Hugs, 🙏🤗❤️
Shaz in Oz.x 
PS . If you haven’t I'd love it you to join as a wonderful encourager of this blog ...  link HERE.  Thank YOU to those who have done so already. It really encourages me to keep on. 😊
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7 comments:

Martha Jane Orlando said...

I'm in my fifth year of reading the Bible all the way through, and I've been so blessed by it, Shaz. And wow! I'm impressed by how you've color-coded your Bibles for different categories - that takes time, thought, effort, and God's inspiration, to be sure. Thank you for sharing what you do and why. You're a blessing!

kiwimeskreations said...

I have read my Bible through once a year for many years now too - often that includes twice through the Psalms, depending on which plan I am using. I have never colour coded a Bible though... maybe next year when I am more settled I will look into it - it would be a great exercise!
Stay safe
Blessings
Maxine

Diane Ronzino said...

Wow, Shaz! God bless you. Over my 39 years, I've had to re-write all my notes and highlights into a new Bible twice. Page by page, line by line. And it was awesome! Oh, how I love The Word! It is my life. Thank you for sharing what you do! Hallelujah!

Betsy said...

I think this is a wonderful post Shaz. I have attempted to color-code my Bible a few times but have been discouraged by the equipment I've used. Highlighters bleed through to the page behind. Some pencils I tried were to light to see and various other issues. I just bought some new coloring pencils for my "art lessons" with Piper and I was thinking the other day that they may work. I'm impressed at how many Bibles you have done.
Last year I began writing the Psalms out by hand and I gleaned so much by doing that. I try earnestly to read through the entire Bible at least once a year. Dennis reads it between 5-6 times each year! He says that God always points something new out to him. He says in all of the times he's read the Bible through, new verses pop up! If he didn't know better he would think it is still being written. It is "living and active!"
Thank you for all of the hints and photos on how you've done this. I sure wish I had a printer in the trailer so I could print out the page where you show the colors. I think I'll copy it out by hand if that's okay with you.
I praying your health is much better and that you will be able to enjoy the spring weather.
Blessings and love,
Betsy

Anne said...

Reading the Bible through in a year is still a new challeneg for me but this is my third year and I love doing it! I also find listening to the Word being read, (I listen to David Suchet) really helps too as I am not naturally a 'reader'. I am also completing my second year of writing at least one verse a day, I really recommend this! I am in awe at your colour coding, such a blessing and such an understanding of the Word. I simply cannot write or colour in a book,but ai can make notes in a notebook!!!! Thank you for blessing us with your post. xx

Sunshine Country said...

It was so good to read your post, thank you for sharing! I have several Bibles, so I may have to try this color coding in one of them. I am particular (perhaps in a funny way) about my "main" Bible I use, in that I don't like colors used in it, but one of my other Bibles would be good for this. I could refer to it when studying particular topics, and think this would be a blessing! I admire your faithfulness in reading the Bible through. I have read it through entirely only once, and about 3/4 the way through two other times, but this year I am nearing my goal of reading it through again. I would so like to complete it by the beginning of next year, so I can start over again fresh in January. I always am amazed at how much I've missed certain portions, and how much the Lord graciously blesses it to me when I do read through!

Kathryn Frantz said...

Thank you Shaz!
This post is inspiring to me!

I have sent it to my email to make it easier and more available to read!

Be safe and well!
Happy Wednesday!

Kathryn