“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
Jesus. The only one whose sacrifice is sufficient. Jesus. The only one that saves. Not by works. Not by good deeds. Not by any good thing I have done. Not by my heritage. Not by my upbringing. Not me.
Jesus.
This scripture writing plan will take you through the books of John, Ephesians, and Colossians with a focus on our Savior and the work He has done.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Valerie loves going on adventures, spending time in nature, and getting lost in the wonders of God’s creation. She works in the 6th grade resource room at the local middle school, co-runs a faith-based youth mentoring program, and is actively involved in Bible camp ministry. Valerie loves mentoring other women, teens and children. She has an obsession with pens and stocking up on beautiful journals. Valerie’s greatest joy is sharing Jesus with others. Her greatest desire is to know Him more deeply and make Him known. You can find her on Instagram @valerieeejayyy
“The disciples were astounded. They didn’t understand what had happened with the loaves of bread. Instead, their minds were closed.” (Mark 6:51-52)
The disciples had just witnessed Jesus do the unthinkable. It was altogether breathtaking and miraculous. They had just witnessed Him feed 5,000 hungry people with only five loaves of bread and two fish. Although, they didn’t just watch in awe. They were actually a part of the miracle in action. Mark says that Jesus “kept giving them to the disciples to give to the people.” They were quite literally passing out and sharing the dynamic miracle that Jesus had performed. Even though they had been submerged in this amazing act, just hours later they found themselves full of fear and worry as Jesus got into their boat and the wind stopped blowing. The text says that they were astounded, they didn’t understand, and that their minds were closed.
How can one witness an unfathomable multiplication of food, then see the Son of man calm a storm just by His presence, and still be confused and have an anxious heart? It is SO easy to judge the disciples and want to just yell, “WAKE UP!” in this situation. In the middle of pointing my finger at the disciples, I could almost feel God belly laugh. He spoke to my heart and helped me realize: How often am I doing just that? How often might we all do it? How often does Jesus allow us the opportunity to take part and witness a miracle or amazing work He is doing and we so soon forget, too?
When we witness Him heal someone, change someone’s soul, or see elements of His love pour out of people, it’s easy to praise Him in that moment. In the middle of the miracle, we are easily able to fully give Christ the credit due and marvel in awe. But how soon we forget the love He drenched us in, the truth He washed over us, and the miracle He cascaded in front of us when a storm comes. We forget. He tells us “Calm down! Don’t be afraid!” as He told the disciples in Mark 6:50, when they were petrified of His presence. We, too, often become timid in His presence, lacking the faith in Jesus that is binding and so essential to survive in a storm. We forget the unmatchable work He has done and turn away from the gift of salvation He has given. Instead, our minds are closed and we allow the wind and the waves to get into the boat. We altogether forget to call on the savior whose speciality is chaos.
Let’s boldly ask Jesus to help us to not forget. Let’s ask Him to keep the miracles alive in our hearts. That way when a storm comes, our minds won’t be closed and we won’t be astonished or scared when our Savior shows up. There are small miracles in each moment waiting to be noticed and participated in. Jesus is present in the small and the big. He is capable of so much more than our minds can even fathom. I want to be ready for that. I want to be waiting and hopeful, expecting Him to move. I want to collect all of those miracles in my heart. Doubt, fear, anxiety, incompetence, complacency, and confusion can’t beat me down anymore after His vibrant miracles rest safely in my heart. Those lies won’t stand a chance.
I don’t want to forget.
Wife to Simon and mama to Theodore Samuel. Hannah began her walk with Christ at age 17 and He is radically reshaping her world daily. She find so much joy in coffee cup conversations with other women at her home, serving alongside her husband at our church’s middle/high school youth group, exploring new cities, cozy days with a book, decorating/reorganizing, filling journals with brightly-colored pens, hand-writing notes on pretty stationary and time at the beach.
How I Came to Love Scripture Writing and a FREE Scripture Writing & Bible Reading Plan!
What is scripture writing?
One of my favorite devotional styles is scripture writing. I first discovered scripture writing when one of my dearest friends gifted me a Journible for Christmas while I was in university. I had never even thought about writing the scripture as a way to meditate on the Word in my quiet time. There are different techniques and ways to do scripture writing, but the basis is that you set aside a few minutes of your day and write down a bible verse or group of verses.
Scripture writing techniques I’ve used and love!
Technique #1
As I mentioned earlier I was gifted a Journible and this was my first introduction to scripture writing. The link takes you to Amazon, but I’m sure you can find them in other places too. My first Journible took me through the books of 1 Timothy – Hebrews. I really loved the way the pages were set up. On the left page it has prompts to get you really thinking about what you’re writing and space to take notes or jot down questions. The right page is set up to write specific verses. Some days I would write one whole page worth of verses, but other days I would only write one or two verses. Here is what it looks like:
Technique #2
This is my favorite technique…. because it’s free! A few years ago at a women’s creative retreat I host each fall our guest speaker introduced us to how she does her devotions. And guess what! She told us about scripture writing! She found her scripture writing plan at swtblessings.com. The creator of Sweet Blessings posts a free scripture writing plan each month with different topics. I grabbed one of my old journals to show you how I did mine.
I printed the plan and glued it right into my journal. This made it super convenient, but you can also download the plan to your phone. I was actually thumbing through some of my old journals the other day and this one happened to be on top of the stack… its from 2018! #throwback. So at the top of my journal you can see where I wrote out the scripture writing for day 1 and then below are notes from my reading. When I first started out with these scripture writing plans I wrote the designated scripture for the day and then I went on to read and take notes from another plan I was doing.
Technique #3
Digging a little deeper, I eventually began to pray the scripture after I wrote it or I would journal a prayer based upon the scripture I wrote for that day in my plan. This technique really helped me to focus on what I was reading and apply it to my life.
Technique #4
Moving even deeper… I eventually discovered a scripture writing plan from blossominfaith.com. The scripture writing plans from Blossom in Faith were set up very similarly as the plans from Sweet Blessings. The major difference is that the plan from Blossom in Faith prompts you to write the scripture and read the chapter the verse is found in so you are able to understand the context of the verse. This was my scripture writing sweet spot. I wrote the verse in my journal as my “key verse” and the proceeded to read the whole chapter and take notes as I read. Here is one of mine:
Origins of our free scripture writing and Bible reading plan
I love working with teens and mentoring them. I often co-host teen retreats and volunteer as staff at teen retreats through the Bible Camp I grew up attending. At our January 2020 retreat we discussed doing personal devotions and what we found worked for us. I excitedly shared about the scripture writing plan I had been working on and how it prompted me to read the whole chapter. One of my close friends, who has asked to remain anonymous, then shared with me a few months later how she was inspired by the idea of reading a whole chapter with the scripture writing. She told me how God moved her heart to create themed scripture writing plans that would take you through the reading of a book, or several books, of the Bible. I asked her if I could make it available on our website and she agreed. As she makes her plans available I will continue to share them with you all.
If you click on the image below you can save it to your google drive or print it. Find what works best for you. Take notes, pray about your reading, read the chapter first, or write the verse out first. There really is no right or wrong way to do it.
I sincerely hope you enjoy this plan! Check out a simple b&w version here!
Valerie loves going on adventures, spending time in nature, and getting lost in the wonders of God’s creation. She works in the 6th grade resource room at the local middle school, co-runs a faith-based youth mentoring program, and is actively involved in Bible camp ministry. Valerie loves mentoring other women, teens and children. She has an obsession with pens and stocking up on beautiful journals. Valerie’s greatest joy is sharing Jesus with others. Her greatest desire is to know Him more deeply and make Him known. You can find her on Instagram @valerieeejayyy
Radiantly Brave 