“Amen Response” Bible Journaling Process

Do you ever have one of those Sundays in church when you feel like the pastor is talking directly to you? Or, perhaps the more accurate statement would be that God is using that pastor to speak directly to your heart. That was my experience a week or so ago when one of our associate pastors, Kris Clifford, delivered a sermon on calling out the fear and anxiety that we are allowing to creep into our lives and grabbing hold of the peace that God promises us. As an anxiety-ridden person, this sermon hit home on so many levels, that I knew immediately I wanted to journal some of my notes straight into my Bible. If you are interested in checking out the sermon, you can find the video here:

“Yes & Amen – #4 Peace”

The Bible journal entry that I created based on this sermon did end up taking longer than most entries, but when you are in the zone and mediating on God’s Word, the time always seems to fly! You can check out my Bible journaling process video on my YouTube channel, linked here:

The main focus of this entry was a large AMEN that I traced out using some old cardboard letters from my scrapbooking days. After tracing the letters, I used a set of Prima Metallic watercolors in warm tones to add a background wash to the page. I focused on using the darker colors in the centers of the letters and moved to lighter golds and yellows as I moved toward the edges of the page. The trick to watercolored backgrounds like this is to use as much water as your page can take. This is a bit tricky in the Illustrating Bible because the paper reacts differently, but I don’t really mind the different textures that jump out.

After the watercolored background was complete, I used the cardboard letters as masks for a series of stamping. Using the “Rustic Gears” stamp set from By the Well 4 God and a series of warm tone Distress Oxide ink, I had fun creating a whole layout of gears surrounding the large letters of AMEN. To add even more texture and interest, I went back with metallic paint from the Handmade Modern line at Target and added metallic accents over top of the gears. The effect was very cool, and the time it took to add this detail gave me even more time to reflect on the sermon and on the verses I focused on (Philippians 4:4-9).

I decided against a typical tab at the top of the page and instead layered up several washi tapes from my stash that had metallic elements. Over top of the washi tape, I placed the title “Perfect Peace” using white tile alpha stickers from By the Well 4 God. After underlining the verse and adding in my journaling, the page was done!