THE DISCIPLINE OF JOURNALING

MAIN POINT: The discipline of journaling will contribute to the disciple’s spiritual growth.

This article is focused on the discipline of journaling. By “journaling,” I mean the capturing of notes and ideas from the disciple’s daily Bible reading (DBR) in a written record. The purpose of the discipline of journaling is to develop another means of spiritual growth. The power of journaling is that it allows the disciple to reap a harvest from the daily times in the Scriptures such that the effect is multiplied.

One of the principles of daily Bible reading (DBR) is that the disciple reads the entire Bible every year. By the repeated reading of the entire word of God, the disciple will be exposed to doctrine, parable, miracle, psalms, wisdom, history, priests, prophets, kings, creation, the Fall, judgment, redemption, salvation, folly, mercy, grace, Law, sacrifice, Jesus Christ, the devil, God, the Holy Spirit, heaven, Sheol, forgiveness, repentance, as well as all manner of human sin including pride, anger, lust, idolatry, malice, slander, murder, incest, lying, deceit, stealing, cheating, coveting, rebellion, defiance, hatred, homosexuality, greed and more. This means that, at the same time the disciple is consciously “working out their salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12), he is also encountering “the pure milk of the Word” on a daily basis and is thus “growing in respect to salvation” (1 Peter 2:2). The net effect is that the spiritual growth of the disciple is multiplied by these disciplines.

JOURNALING PRINCIPLES AND MECHANICS

            The first principle of journaling is that it is done not as an obligation unto drudgery but is done as a delight unto growth. Journaling is an enjoyable option, not a burdensome duty. The disciple keeps his journal as a record of his times spent with the living God fellowshipping over the living Word. The Lord is speaking to you through His Word and you are trying to capture those moments for the joy that they bring. You do not have to keep a journal; rather, you get to keep a journal. It is your journal and so it is your tool to capture your thoughts about what you are reading in the Word. So enjoy your journaling!

            GENERAL PRINCIPLES. There are a few general principles which help our journaling.

• Journaling helps plant in your mind the daily reading which you have done. When you are reading the Word, your mind is engaged and the Spirit is showing you wonderful things from the Law (Psalm 119:18). The way that you keep these “wonderful things” in the mind (which is the active part of your thinking) after you stop reading is by recording those ideas in your journal. Your journal is thus a means of keeping some portion of your DBR in your active mind where it is still available for reflection and meditation.
• Journaling is the means to take what you read and implant it into your life. As you read the Word, the Spirit will point out specific things that apply to you and to your life. For example, the Spirit may bring to your awareness a sin that is present in your life. By recording this experience in your journal, you bring that sin into the light and expose it to the possibility of repentance. The journal allows what the Spirit said to be captured so that it can lead to change.
• By the discipline of journaling, you will personally own what you have labored to express. Journaling is a skill that is learned through consistent effort over time. Expressing the ideas you have gleaned from Scripture is a demanding task that, by itself, will bring about growth in your thinking and in your ability to communicate your ideas to others. In this sense, journaling is labor. It is hard work. But the fruit of this labor is abundant, not the least of which is that what you labor hard to express in your journal entry will become your firmly-held possession. You will not soon forget the ideas you have labored to journal well.

RECORD DATE AND THE SCRIPTURES READ. Each journal entry should include some basic information. Start by recording the date and then what Scriptures you read that day.

DAILY NUGGETS AND OTHER JOURNAL NOTES. The rest of the journal entry is pretty free form, but having a plan for what you are going to record facilitates the journaling.

• DAILY NUGGETS. Something that impressed you from the passage. A doctrinal truth about God, Christ, man, etc. An “aha” moment. A particular scene and its significance. Reminders of your own salvation. Beautiful expressions from a psalm or a powerful word of prophecy. Write a paragraph (or two) about what impressed you and how you want to incorporate that into your life. Again, the “daily nugget” is where you capture in your journal what you experienced in your reading.
• SCRIPTURES TO MEMORIZE. As you are reading, you will encounter passages that you want to memorize so that you can meditate on these verses later on. Note these passages in your journal. (I just write MEM in my journal and the Scripture reference.)
• DOCTRINAL TRUTHS. Your journal is a great place to capture doctrinal passages that lay your theological foundation. Record these verses and then try to express the doctrine contained in them. Truths about God, Christ, man, sin, life in Christ, the future return of Jesus, etc.
• COMMANDS AND EXHORTATIONS. Record in your journal those commands and instructions which impress you or arrest you. Since the disciple is obligated to obey Scriptural commands, he records in his journal those that make an impression on him to remind him to be obedient.
• MISCELLANEOUS. Cross-references to other Scriptures. Passages for future study, either because of difficulty or interest. Word-studies in English, Hebrew or Greek. Points of personal application. And more.

DAILY NUGGETS FOR DIFFERENT GENRES. The Bible is made up of different types of literature. We refer to these as different genres. Because these genres communicate divine truth in different ways, they also are best read using slightly different lenses. In practice, this means that the disciple is looking for different “nuggets” in the Psalms than he is in the book of Judges. Why? Because Psalms expresses divine truth in poetry language and Judges is narrative history. Correspondingly, we ask different questions and we note different things as we go through different genres.

The following are some suggestions for what nuggets to look for in the different genres.

GENESIS. The first book of the Bible is almost a genre by itself because it introduces us to so many themes and foundational characters. While Genesis has the form of historical narrative, the unique subjects of Genesis require a different lens to discover different nuggets. Look for passages that establish the very foundation of everything: creation of the world, examples of God’s judgment, the origin of sin, the origin of the nations, the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob). Be alert for foreshadows of Christ. Pay attention to minor characters and plot twists.

EXODUS-DEUTERONOMY. Again, we are on the lookout for foreshadows of Christ and of things to come. The LORD destroys Egypt and Pharaoh and the children of Israel go free. The Law is given at Sinai. The tabernacle is built. The priests are given their duties according to the old covenant sacrificial system. Israel wanders for forty years in the wilderness. Israel is disobedient and faithless and the LORD is steadfast and true and faithful.

JOSHUA TO ESTHER – HISTORICAL NARRATIVE. These books chronicle the history of the twelve tribes of Israel from the time they enter the Promised Land until after their return from the exile in Babylon. Here we see the LORD’s faithfulness, that He is constantly calling Israel and Judah back from their rebellion and disobedience and is calling them back to the covenant they made at Sinai. In these books we look for foreshadows of Christ but we also see many examples of men and women who either choose to obey the LORD or who choose to rebel against Him. We see heroes to emulate and we see others who forsake the LORD and His commands and we do not want to be like them. The stories are fascinating and the characters are interesting. Look for obedience and disobedience from people just like you and me. Draw godly principles from the stories.

JOB. A complex book because we must constantly evaluate the dialog to see if it is true to the revealed Word. Job is primarily a theological dialog and debate about the nature of God and about how a sinner can ever be reconciled to a holy God. A fascinating book!

PSALMS. The psalms cover a great variety of subjects and display an amazing richness of expression. It is a book containing laments, praises, prayers, theological reflections and more, but in all the poetry of the Psalms there is a consistency of theology that agrees with the teaching of the rest of Scripture. Psalms are good to memorize because they stretch our brain. In my experience, enjoying the psalms is an acquired taste. I had probably been a believer for ten or fifteen years before I began to appreciate the depth and power of the psalms.

ISAIAH TO MALACHI – THE PROPHETS. The prophets are at once powerful and confusing. Powerful in that they tell of God’s might and His wrath and His judgment and His righteousness, and confusing because the prophets often speak in figurative terms or visions about events of the future. The prophets may write about Christ’s first coming and then, in the next verse, declare events of His coming in glory. The prophets pronounce judgments against the children of Israel for their disobedience, but they also make astonishing promises to those who will be followers of Jesus. All this means that reading prophecy requires skill that is gained through much time in these books. The reward is rich nuggets of Bible truth. Look for Christ and His church and look for evidence of God’s holiness and power.

GOSPELS. Drink deeply of these narrative stories about the life of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. As you read the gospels, you will be struck by the fact that Jesus is like no other. No one else who has walked this planet is like Him. Capture as many of the fascinating details as you can. Virgin birth. Sinless life. Atoning death. Glorious resurrection. Miracles and teaching and compassion and power that all point to His deity.

ACTS. The commissioned church goes out into the world. The question to ask when reading Acts is, “Is this (whatever this is) simply descriptive (just describing what happened) or is this prescriptive (meaning this is what should happen throughout the church age)?” Here we see evangelism, baptism, false teachers, Peter as a missionary, Paul as a missionary, what is true conversion, does the Law continue to be in effect, elders, church planting, persecution,

THE EPISTLES. The epistles are where the Bible places the doctrines and the commands and exhortations that define the life of a disciple of Jesus. Therefore, we read the epistles with an eye toward finding and understanding these doctrines and commands. In reading these, then, much of what we capture will be in these two categories.

REVELATION. The last book of the Bible is also the most difficult to understand. Nevertheless, even the inexperienced Bible-reader is indwelt with the Holy Spirit of the living God and is therefore able to understand these visions of the apocalypse. You will not understand everything, but you will understand something. So, journal what you see in the book and wait for the time when you will understand more.

SUMMARY

The main message about journaling is that it is an effective way to capture some of the details of your daily Bible reading. Part of the joy of reading the Scriptures is to sense that your grasp of the Word is becoming stronger over time. Journaling is one of the ways to increase the strength of your grip. The exercise of trying to express the thoughts and words of God in your own human words is a spiritual task. The more that you do this, the more satisfying and edifying the task will be.

I have tried to give some guidelines as a way to motivate your journaling. These guidelines are not rules but are just guardrails to keep you on the path. The best course of action is to begin capturing some of the ideas and insights that you receive while Bible reading in a journal and seek to do that on a consistent basis. The goal is to increase your love of the Scriptures by developing the discipline of journaling.

Soli Deo gloria            rmb                 5/25/2024                   #703