DIY Legacy Bible Journal

UPDATE: This is one of my most popular posts of all time, written back in 2014. I am still using a Bible journal, though not as much as I was then, but that is just due to defaulting to being unorganized and forgetful more often than not. Seeing this journal and flipping through it again made me realize how much I miss it! Why do I default to mess and chaos? I love having all my sermon notes, thoughts from time in the Bible, and great quotes all in one place, rather than scattered on papers, bulletins, and throughout my bullet journal. So I’m dusting off this post and my Bible journal!

I am almost through my second Bible journal since I first started doing this in October 2011! Three years later and I’m still loving both my journals.  My first one was a composition notebook, because it was handy, cheap, and I wasn’t sure I’d really stick with it.  It is much worn and loved.  My second is a 8.5 x 11 bound Canson Sketch book with 65 lb paper (a nice weight that minimizes bleed through).  There are only a small handful of pages left in that second journal, so I thought I’d give you an update on what is working, what I’ve changed and what I have in it. All the information on the first journal is found in this post here.

When I started my first journal, I filled in the table of contents as I went, which made things not alphabetical or organized at all, but it was fine, especially later, when I color coded things for easy look up.  But a friend of mine, who was also working on a journal, showed me how she simply added letter stamps to help alphabetize.  I didn’t have all her cool stamps, but I just drew different font letters and use that (though I am WAY behind of filling them in, and not even sure if with the next journal I’ll add a table of contents.)  But this gives you a rough idea of the mostly alphabetized system.

I also glued one of my favorite hymns on the inside cover.

When I started this book, I used colored pencils to add color, but then after two pages decided it would be really cool to do it all monochromatic and used only three shades of gray markers for the entire rest of the book.  I really really love it, and it makes it easy to carry around and work on since I only need three markers and a pen set.

I also tape and staple a lot of stuff into this journal.  Different quotes, notes, bulletins, ephemera….

When I was going through a Bible study on the book of James, I transcribed it into my journal, pausing to look up definitions of important words.

I really liked the project of writing out scripture, so after James, I wrote out Psalm 103 during a rough period of time…

And when I was reading through Psalms (part of my “Runing my Bible reading program“) I wrote out every “I will” statement in Psalms. There are many, many pages of these.

Before I started writing my Bible Studies, I would doodle and write out things that caught my eye in each chapter… 

And this is one of my pages written out from the Ephesians Journal and Doodle study.  Love the promises and truth in this book of the Bible!

I hope this brief look into my Bible Journal will inspire you to start your own.  I love that we can NEVER plumb the depths of God’s Word and hope to have many, many more Bible journals jam packed full of His truth before I meet my Jesus face to face!

If you have any questions or want more specific information, leave a comment below! Thank you!