Psalm 139 - Where can I go?

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,’ even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.

- Psalm 139: 7-12

I love this Psalm. In its entirety it's a wonderful declaration of how amazing God is. I love the imagery of the dawn and the sea, and this image seemed the only thing to go with the passage. I enjoy images like this - they're relatively easy to draw, meaning I can be thinking about the passage more while I create, but they illustrate perfectly what I love about the verses and what strikes me as important.

You may have noticed that I've not journalled on the page that contains Psalm 139. There is a reason for that, and that is that I wanted to use a verse from further on in the psalm on the other page, making a double page entry for this passage.

I used a set of alphabet stamps from Dovecraft, black Ranger inkpad, watercolour pencils, black Micron pen, and prepped the page with gesso before I started, because the ink will bleed if you don't prep the page.

Genesis 1 - In the beginning... God created

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

 - Genesis 1:1

The creation story is one that seems to polarise opinion, even among Christians. Personally, I believe that it is not a completely literal account of how everything was created, but that the essentials (that God was the force breathing everything into being) are true. I have no problem reconciling science and the Bible, and no issue with what some people see as conflicting time scales over whether the Earth was created in a day or over tens of thousands of years. I think the best way to explain this is through a CS Lewis quote from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader:

“Do not look sad. We shall meet soon again."
"Please, Aslan", said Lucy,"what do you call soon?"
"I call all times soon" said Aslan; and instantly he was vanished away.”

God can all all times soon, and to Him there is no reason why He shouldn't call 13.7 billion years a day if He feels so inclined! Also, before the sun was created, how long was a day? It could have been as long as it needed to be.

I wanted to do a two-page spread for this chapter, as it covers so much in 31 verses.

For the first page - the first page I will see when I start reading the Bible - I wanted to do something different to what I usually do. I had some washi tape I had bought for using on Christmas cards, which was black with silver stars and moons across it. I know technically that 'in the beginning' there was nothing, but it seemed to fit with the theme of creation. I layered strips to create the background for the first page, then used a white gel pen to do the lettering 'In the beginning...'.

I got the idea for the images on the second page from a calendar I had, which had outline lettering with more detailed patterns inside than outside the letters. I drew a generic landscape in the background and added in stars, plants and fish inside the letters to try to represent different parts of creation. (I didn't include people in the picture as chapter 2 goes into more detail about how God created Adam and Eve). I used my Inktense pencils to colour in the images.

Ephesians - Breaking down the walls

This was another picture I was inspired to draw after a Bible study session. The image was to signify God's love, grace, mercy, and so on breaking down the walls created by sin so that the light can shine through.

There was no particular verse that prompted this image as we were studying a topic rather than a passage, and this came out of our group discussion.

Refined by testing - Zechariah 13:19 & Isaiah 48:10

I've been away on holiday for a couple of weeks and while I was away I took part in a Bible study with the friends we were staying with. They're working through a book on living the Christian life, and in one of the studies we were looking at God's testing of us.


The study wasn't on a particular passage, but used several verses in the discussions. There were two verses I particularly picked up on for my journalling.

See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

 - Isaiah 48:10

This third I will put into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’”

 - Zechariah 13:9

The image that came to mind during the study was of a figure going through the fire and emerging shiny and golden. The picture is all watercolours with white and gold gel pens. The black is dark in the background, but as you can see in the picture, the text is all still visible. I don't like doing anything that covers the text too much - I feel that would be like saying that my thoughts on *this* passage are more important than being able to read *that* passage later.

The study questions were quite interesting and personal at times. I'm not going to share my answers, but I will share the questions that made me think most. One was 'how can you tell the difference between testing and discipline?' and another was 'when was the last time God tested/disciplined you, and what was your response?'

Some of the more general discussion points were around the results of testing and disciplining, which should be the same - a character more fixed on God's will for us.

Another interesting point was that we should expect to be tested regularly. When we went around the group we'd all felt tested within the last few days. It was an interesting discovery, because it's not something I think about much.

Matthew 5:13-15 - Salt and light

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."

- Matthew 5:13-16

I've been working through Matthew with my reading recently and reached the passage on being salt and light to the world. I wanted to do something to represent both parts of the passage and an old style lantern came to mind. I thought about drawing a salt cellar next to it, but then when I was googling inspiration pictures I found a small stone bowl with (pink!) rock salt in it, and that somehow seemed more appropriate.

The passage is one that I find comes to mind a lot as a reminder to me how to act. There's no point saying you're a Christian if you don't act like it, whether that's because you act completely inappropriately, you blaspheme, or just that you don't interact with anyone at all. Being Christians means we're the shop window for God. People should see God reflected in us every day. Of course we're going to have off days, get angry, say things that aren't what God would want. But the overwhelming impression we should leave on others is that we love them, God loves them, and that being Christ-like is something that we aspire to.

Something I noticed when I'd completed this page is that the art isn't perfect - the perspective is off, I got dark patches where there should be light, and the salt doesn't really look like salt. But I still love this page. The art does what I'd wanted it to do, which is to remind me of the important parts of the passage, and I had so much fun creating it. I think fun can be a taboo word when it comes to reading the Bible sometimes, but surely God wants us to enjoy the time we spend reading His Word, so I have no issues with saying I had fun doing this journal, as well as being challenged by the passage.

The prompt for this journal came from Rebekah R Jones' Bible Art Journalling Challenge weeks 30 (light) and 31 (salt).

The narrow gate - Matthew 7:13-14

The narrow and wide gates
‘Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

- Matthew 7:13-14

I've read this passage dozens of times, possibly to the point that it's become less meaningful over the years. I know I should stick to the harder narrow path, with rules laid out by God, and not go to the wider everything goes path, but it can be hard to think of the end game sometimes when there's so much going on in the present.

As I was reading the passage this time this image came into my mind - a choice of two doorways, one leading to a beautiful countryside place and the other filled with fire and smoke. In drawing this, hopefully it will make the destinations stick in my mind better if I find myself contemplating trying the wide path sometimes.

As usual, I used my Derwent Inktense pencils, black Micron pen and white gel pen for this entry.

Bible flip through March to October part 2

I had a lovely blank page at the start of the New Testament to fill, so I wanted to do something to show the change from Old to New. The thing that leaped to mind straight away was 'a king is born' - what the New Testament is all about.
I painted the page with gold acrylic paint then added the text with black pen and used gel pens to colour the crown. I finished with washi tape along the edge so I could find the New Testament easily.

This was a page I did during Bible study on Isaiah 1..

The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
A rebellious nation

Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth! For the Lord has spoken:
‘I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.’

Woe to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption!
They have forsaken the Lord; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.

Why should you be beaten any more? Why do you persist in rebellion? Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted. From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness – only wounds and bruises and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with oil.

Your country is desolate, your cities burned with fire; your fields are being stripped by foreigners right before you, laid waste as when overthrown by strangers.
Daughter Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a cucumber field, like a city under siege.
Unless the Lord Almighty had left us some survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.

Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
‘The multitude of your sacrifices – what are they to me?’ says the Lord. ‘I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations – I cannot bear your worthless assemblies. Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.
When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood!

Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.

‘Come now, let us settle the matter,’ says the Lord.
‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.’
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

See how the faithful city has become a prostitute! She once was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her – but now murderers!
Your silver has become dross, your choice wine is diluted with water.

 - Isaiah 1:1-22

I wrote the warnings from the passage in the margin and chose to use the idea of dilution and scarlet sins for the background. The red colour is diluted as it flows down the page - not a literal translation of the idea but it reminds me of the passage - don't become diluted and that sins are 'red as crimson' if we refuse to make ourselves clean before God.

This was inspired by an inspirational picture I saw somewhere. When I was reading the passage from Genesis about Lot escaping from Sodom and Gomorrah it seemed to fit perfectly.

With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, ‘Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.’

When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, ‘Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!’

But Lot said to them, ‘No, my lords, please! Your servant has found favour in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it – it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.’

He said to him, ‘Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.’ (That is why the town was called Zoar.)

By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. Then the Lord rained down burning sulphur on Sodom and Gomorrah – from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities – and also the vegetation in the land. But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

 - Genesis 15:15-26