Colorful Bible Study

One of my prized possessions from junior high is a stapled and taped together plastic sheath full of stubby colored pencils. We could barely afford those colored pencils, but Mom got them for me. I thought they were the best, and I used them to color in maps for geography lessons.

Now that I’m an adult, I either colored a lot of maps or they were used for something else. And I must confess, I’m not an adult coloring fan. Nothing wrong with the trend — in fact it is pretty nice — just not me.

No, I’ve used these colored pencils with my Bible study. Some colors have been replaced in the tattered envelope, and I don’t need my severely faded Key anymore.

When I read, I take apart the sentence and underline what it says to me.

Red = Warning

Orange = Promise

Yellow = Song, poetry or prayer

Lt Green = Example to follow

Dk Green = Command/Do!

Dk Blue = Penetrator/Wow

Lt Blue = Victory/Thankfulness

Lt Purple = Faith

Dk Purple = Something about God’s character/ How we can praise God

Black = Basis of what we believe

Gold = Name of God

Brown = Interesting Facts/the things trivia questions are made of.

Want to try it with me?  Let’s try it with one of the most familiar verses, John 3:16.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Now you might say, well that’s a promise and color it all orange.

But let’s look closer. Does that sentence tell you anything about God?

It sure does. We learn that God really, really loves the world — so much that He gives the very best He can, His Son. So you might think WOW! and color that part dark blue. Or you might say, this tells me about God, and color that phrase dark purple.

Anything else we can learn? Is there something you and I need to do? Certainly, we need to believe. So is that an example or a command? To answer that, we probably should look at the next part:

should not perish but have everlasting life.

That phrase goes back to the promise, so it’s definitely orange.

Yet, can you tell that you get the promise if you do something?

believes in Him

So what is God’s Spirit telling you? Do you feel like it’s an “if you want to” or God is urging you to, “Do it girl! I love you!”?

And that is a good example of how personal your Bible study can be.

One more verse. Romans 12:5

Each phrase might say something to you. Is it something you should do? Do you see a warning in there?

Have fun using your color-coding Bible study. Try this out on the other verses mentioned in the magazine.

One thing I know, your reading will be slower, and it will become much more personal.