In yesterday’s post, I shared two approaches to scripture reading–formational and informational reading. To insure a healthy blend of each consider journaling. I have used the following journal model for many years now and it has yielded a constant forward momentum in my discipleship journey. A sample journal based upon the model following that is in bold and italics may look like this—

Date: 6/2/08 Passage: Mark 12:1-12

First Obervation/keywords: vinyard, Son. God goes to any length to care for us, but we don’t accept it easily.

Main Idea/meaning: Jesus was explaining to the multitude how great God’s love is and how they have rejected it time and time again. Jesus’ death is foreshadowed.

This passage make me feel: a need to examine my own life to make sure that I am recognizing Jesus. The multitude rejected him even when they had him physically in their presence and saw many miracles. I wonder how often I push Jesus away.

I don’t understand or a question I have is… How we can be so selfish in the face of such overwhelming love.

Right now I believe God wants me to…Be a good steward of the gifts I have so that when his son returns, he will find hospitality and faithfulness rather than hostility and contempt.

Prayer: God, forgive me for the times when I forget that you are the master and I am the servant and that all I have is yours. May i bea great steward. May the Spirit keep me aware of your grace. Amen.

In retrospect, I have come to learn that the questions I have and the completion of the statement “right now I believe God wants me to…” have been the pieces that seem to yield the most fruit in my life. Getting to those pieces without studying or answering the other questions is very limiting.

If you would like to watch an instructional video on this journaling technique and pick up some more tips for doing it effectively watch my youtube video by clicking here.