Bible Journaling: Book of Philippians

In this book of Philippians, we find the Gospel story explained in new and beautiful ways. Let’s read this book together and discover some journaling prompts to respond creatively to the Bible.

For a broader view of this book of the Bible, we encourage you to watch this video:

Bible journaling tip: 

If you are a little hesitant to dive straight into your Bible with highlighters, pens and all kinds of damaging materials - you can consider creating a “workbook” Bible. You can do this by reprinting a book of the Bible into A4 pages by simply copying and pasting from Google or the Bible app that you prefer. That way you have a “workbook” Bible for the book you’re studying through that can get really messy. If you want to, you can then add only the best notes to your Bible after you’ve journeyed through the book.

LOOK UP(information): encounter God through the Scripture 

Author:

Paul was in prison when he received a financial gift from the church in Philippi. This letter is his response to the gift, to say thank you and to encourage them in their faith. 

Audience:

This letter was written to the church in Philippi who we can read more about in Acts 16. This was a Roman colony which meant that these believers faced a lot of persecution. Mark all the places where he speaks about this throughout this book with a letter P.

History:

When Paul says “For me, to live is Christ and to die is a gain”, he is not using a beautiful metaphor. He is writing from prison and execution was a true reality that he was considering since it could very well happen. Can you find other statements in this book that are interpreted metaphorically but was probably also meant literally?

Genre:

This book is a letter, or Epistle, written from Paul in prison. The Philippians were generous towards Paul and he writes this letter to thank them for their gift, and he also does so much more. What are the other aims of this letter?

LOOK IN(revelation): contemplate / reflect on our own lives

Key verse:

Philippians 4:6 NIV

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Inspiration:

Sometimes we can feel so overwhelmed by life’s circumstances that it can feel very counter-productive to pause. But there are numerous places in the Bible where we see that God values it when we come to Him to talk, ask, and seek. Jesus often withdrew to be by himself to pray. Do you find it hard to stop and pause when things get busy? That’s when we need it the most? There is an old saying that goes: “You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes a day. Unless you're too busy, then you should sit for an hour.”

LOOK OUT(transformation): respond with creative worship action  

Drawing prompt:

Read thoroughly what Paul writes about heaven in chapters 3 and 4 and then draw two contrasting images. What is heaven not? And What is heaven like? Are we saved from the earth and going to a different place in the clouds? Is heaven now or only someday (does he use past / present / future tense)? 

Bible Journey with JournalOwl:

Here are some questions / prompts provided by the JournalOwl community. 

• Can you name some of the greatest joys for a minister in these two verses? (Philippians 2:1-2)
• What is the great antidote to disunity? (Philippians 2:3)

Follow this link to dive into this book with an online Bible Study group.

Writing prompt:

There is a poem in this letter that can be found in chapter 2:6-11. The rest of the book is organized around this poem, so that it is the central point. For today’s writing prompt we are going to write our own poem using a similar style. Read the poem carefully and try to pick up stylistic choices and structural decisions. 

We have lost a lot of the beauty of the Bible because we are not reading it in the original language that it was written in, and so, simply put, it doesn’t rhyme. But it also goes much deeper than that. You only need to have a short conversation with a person from a different country or culture to realize that you have different word choices, metaphors and expressions. See if you can “translate” the poem into your culture and language so that it is almost brought back to its original true beauty. 

Prayer:

God, I want to thank you for the book of Philippians. Thank you for allowing me to explore and discover the Bible in new ways every day. Let my response to this text be worship unto you!