Shame and The Biblical Narrative

What’s the connection between doubt and shame?   Or what about judgment and shame?  I was blown away this week reading what Dr. Curt Thompson shared about these two very prevalent human struggles.  And to see them in Genesis 3 and understand their origin as well as their impact – wow!  Are you ever in for a treat this week!

It’s so easy to get caught in a rapid emotional down current whenever I experience these.  I am so thanking the Lord for how He’s helping me learn to recognize them for what they are and cry out to him to help me rise above the story shame is telling so I can embrace – not just in my head, but in a way that impacts my life! – The Story God is telling!

Watch:  Introductory Video

Read: Chapter 5  Shame and The Biblical Narrative

Grab a colored pen or pencil and highlight the things that stand out to you as you read.

Consider:  Genesis 3

Even if you’ve enjoyed quiet times in this chapter a zillion times, there is always new treasure awaiting!  Ask the Lord to open your eyes so you can see even more wonderful things in His Word.  Then read until a verse stands out to you.

LOOK:  Write out the verse you sense the Lord wants you to focus on.

LISTEN:  Dialogue with Him about this verse.  See how many observations you can make about it.  Write down any questions you ask Him as well as any thoughts that come to mind after!

LIVE IT OUT:  Ask the Lord to reveal how He wants you responding to this passage of Scripture.  How does He want you applying in your life what you’ve learned?

Create: Pre Art Journaling & Story Boarding

This is one of my favorite ways to process a chapter!  I’m so excited to finally get to share this with you!!!

This week’s art journal challenge begins with you engaging in a “pre-art journaling” activity.

Pre-art journaling is a wonderful way to digest what you are reading and help you filter through the content to zero in on what the Lord is highlighting for you.

Take a sheet of paper and fold it into six sections, creating six “frames.”

As you read through the summary at the end of Chapter 5 entitled, “From God’s Story to Our Story,” p. 112-114 stop after each paragraph to quickly sketch in one “frame” what stood out to you from what you just read.  Note:  You don’t need to sketch everything that was mentioned in the paragraph just what God’s highlighted for you.

After reading through the last paragraph ask the Lord what He wants you to do in response to what you’ve been learning this week then jot that down.  Now you can stop right here, but…  I find taking time to process even further by creating pages from what I’ve just sketched helps me digest even more the content.

First, I selected one of the frames that stood out to me the most.  Then I took that rough sketch and created an art journal page from it.  It really is amazing how helpful this can be in jump starting your creations.

I created my picture from the fifth frame above as it really tied in with my application.

Then I went back and cut up the frames and glued them in to my art journal (because I decided I’d like to keep them as a summary of the chapter).  You don’t need to do this!  The beauty of pre art journaling is you can always just toss your quick sketches away.

It really is neat to see how doing this after taking time to camp out in Genesis 3 really solidified and confirmed what the Lord wanted me doing for my application this week.

And taking time to make that application SMART was huge for getting me out the door and actually doing it yesterday!  :0)

Apply:  Now it’s your turn.  What has the Lord been laying on your heart?  After you process through what it looks like to respond to Him in this way, be sure to create your application page!  It doesn’t have to be fancy!  I just glued the pages from my pre art journaling into my notebook.

May the Lord richly bless the time you spend doing this!