Equipping Eve: Crayolas and Quiet Time

Well, hello ladies and welcome to another episode of the equipping Eve. I'm your host

Aaron Benziger. How is everyone? doing today it is a beautiful wonderful perfect day

To talk about the sufficiency of Christ and the sufficiency of his word

Isn't it? Of course it is every day is perfect for that And so we we like to start with little inspirational quotes around here not every episode

But every now and then I like to just you know go find one of those popular women

Bible teachers that everybody loves so much You know the ones

I'm talking about the ones who have their own shrines at the local quote -unquote Christian bookstore

Yeah, those ones You know those women are very

Inspirational and they say some very thought provoking things so I Thought I would share with you some words of wisdom from the ever -popular

Ever -compromising Rapidly becoming more and more

Wacky Beth Moore over at the website of James Robeson's Life Today Television program

Beth Moore appears on Robeson's program quite a bit and he is aired on TBN and actually

News just broke breaking breaking news. I believe it's on January 6th of 2016

Beth Moore will now have her own television show on TBN so Set your

DVR ladies you won't want to miss that now if you are unfamiliar with Beth Moore Or you're you're not really understanding why you hear a tone of sarcasm in my voice.

Maybe you're new to equipping Eve I do encourage you to go back into the archives of equipping

Eve and actually we will link to it at the blog and You can find the blog if you go to equipping

Eve org or comm you can find a link to the blog there and under Today's episode.

I will link to a previous episode where we have discussed some of Beth Moore's Bible teaching

And I believe that episode is called something to the effect of What happens when we see

Beth Moore teach the Bible? something like that and it's just a biblical critique of some of the teachings of Beth Moore and She's very popular among women and we need to test all things and all people against scripture

And that includes the ones who have a very happy smile the ones who are very energetic and engage us

We still need to test them against scripture and when Beth Moore's teachings are tested against scripture.

She fails her teachings fail and We will link to some articles as well that demonstrate that and compare her words to scripture

That is the key. It's isn't about Making fun of a person or critiquing a person or personality

It's about their teachings and saying does this hold up to God's Word if it doesn't you lose

God's Word wins Every time God's Word is true. It is inspired and errant infallible

It's pure perfect. Holy it is it is adequate to make one wise it is sufficient and That is why we test all things against it

But anyway on that note back to my Sarcastic use of Beth Moore to inspire you for the day

So anyway, I went to James Robeson's website here for his program life today, and he has devotional on here for For the day.

This was dated December 27th, 2015 and It is a devotional written by Beth Moore.

So that's rather interesting That he's he's allowing this woman to teach

So anyway, she ends her devotional the devotional is called audacious obedience

I don't know if she needs to pay a royalty fee to Stephen Furtick who over there at Elevation Church I think he has the the monopoly on the use of the word audacious

So I don't know what kind of fee she had to pay but December 27th, 2015

Audacious obedience by Beth Moore. I won't read the whole thing But I I will

I will share with you how she ends this and she says when you give your heart over to the outrageous

Occupation of the glorious love of God He will flabbergast your mind with a living breathing first Corinthians 2 9

What I did not see and ear did not hear and what never entered the human mind God prepared this for those who love him

So there you go If you give your heart over to the outrageous occupation of the glorious love of God He will flabbergast your mind the living breathing first Corinthians 2 9

I Don't know what that means. I feel like I say that a lot when

I Quote these teachers. I don't understand but you notice how she uses very vivid words

And these evoke a lot of vivid imagery in your mind And and so it just sounds very spiritual and uplifting and inspiring you give your heart over to the outrageous

Occupation of the glorious love of God. He will flabbergast your mind. I mean, hey, that's how you draw people in right there

But it really doesn't actually mean anything. I don't know now this looking here at the

At the footnotes is actually excerpted from her book, which is called audacious so, I don't know if Stephen Furtick knows about this, but he better get on that because we've got a lot of a lot of audaciousness

Audacity going on a lot too much too much going on here

Anyway, that's your inspiring quote for the day ladies Take that and do with it what you will.

So what are we going to talk about? Today, I would like to talk about a movement a

I Don't know that it's actually that new I think it's kind of been going on for a couple of years But it's in a certain circle

Women, of course, I'm seeing this among women. I'm not saying men don't engage in this

Maybe they do it would be a little odd, but it would probably not be completely unheard of But there is a new

Thing, you know a new fad that is appealing to the creative side of women

And I think we need to talk about it at least take a surface level look at it and Consider the implications of Bible art journaling

Bible art journaling and again, this is this is

I think a bigger kind of underground movement than we realize the more I Google it and whatnot the more things

I find and it's getting a little concerning the directions this can go in So I had never heard anything about this

Bible art journaling. What is that? I you know when I hear the word journal I Cringe a little bit.

I know a lot of Christians journal Maybe they have a prayer journal or just write your thoughts down and and there's nothing inherently wrong with that some people like to do that ironically, even though I Consider myself a writer.

I do not enjoy journaling at all. I Tried to journal when

I was young. I tried to journal in high school. I tried to journal in college. I Can't do it.

It's just it's strange to me. It just doesn't flow and But perhaps you could consider a blog a journal.

Maybe that's how I know that's more of my journaling outlet I'm not sure. I guess I just feel like I'd rather focus on Truths that are contained in God's Word and truths that are outside of myself than to just talk about myself fill a book with thoughts of myself, so so journaling has never been my thing and I I bristle a bit at any sort of Christian Sort of journaling not because I think it's inherently wrong or sinful

But because I think it can be portrayed sinfully and wrongly and that is when

It is taught that journaling is a spiritual discipline that you must be doing and if you aren't doing it

You probably aren't spiritual enough. You might need to Examine your faith, etc, etc

And and I say this it might sound a little weird to you But when I was in college that sort of thought came across to me in the teachings of like our dorm

Bible study and some of the teachings that were available to us on campus and So again,

I tried to journal in college and I just couldn't do it and I thought well I'm failing as a Christian because I'm not

Journaling and so it's very discouraging It's like well, I don't like to journal and and I I don't want to journal but now

I'm failing as a Christian now I was not actually saved at the time looking back, but that that doesn't change my feelings about journaling

I don't want to sit down and journal my thoughts about a thing I just want to study the truth.

And so That's why I personally cringe when I hear the word journaling so it makes me want to look into something when

I see that and and ensure that it's not being taught as A command you must be journaling or your spiritual life is awful

And so then I see art journaling and I have not one artistic bone in my body

And so art makes me nervous crafty things make me nervous. They give me hives

So when I saw this thing called Bible art journaling, I thought what is going on?

What what are we doing? And so I clicked on this picture and up appears this picture of someone's

Bible and it's just covered in this A frou -frou fluffy flowery

Painting and words on the pages of scripture You couldn't even read the scripture.

It was just this woman's art And I was it was it was like graffiti in your in her

Bible I'm like what who who destroyed your Bible you poor woman someone got hold of your

Bible and destroyed it. That's awful And so I was just blown away I've never seen anything like this and looked into it and discovered this is a movement this

Bible art journaling and If you look it up, you'll see a lot of pictures you'll see a lot of colors and people are putting again flowers frou -frou very very girly

Things in their Bible and all over the Bible page and it's oftentimes them taking a verse that they liked

Out of context and then you splatter that verse or whatever picture Represents that verse to you all over your

Bible page and now you don't have scripture You have the one scripture you've taken out of context on that page and a bunch of colors and it's it's not

God's Word anymore, it's it's your art journal in your

Bible and so I I tweeted something out about this because I hadn't seen anything like it and My friend

Elizabeth over at the end time blog she She took a look into it and she's a more creative artsy person than I But she took a look into it and shared some of her concerns as well

About this particular movement and Will link to her

Her article on the blog as well She makes an interesting point without reading through her entire article it's quite lengthy

But she makes the point that Bible art journaling is ultimately a diversion, you know, so it's diverting you it's it's

Distracting you from the Word of God and she gives a good quote by Richard Baxter the

Puritan Who had a very high view of the Bible and Richard Baxter? Wrote quote the reading of the

Word of God and the explication and application Of it in good books is a means to possess the mind with sound orderly and working apprehensions of God and of his holy truths so that in such reading our

Understandings are oft illuminated with a heavenly light and our hearts are touched with a special delightful relish of that truth

And they are secretly attracted and engaged unto God and all the powers of our souls are excited and animated to a holy obedient life

And Elizabeth goes on then and Says I do not believe that painting butterflies on my

Bible's pages is an encounter with Jesus doing so incrementally adulterates it Alters it and then slowly degrades the high view we should have of it

The Bible is not an art project and I would give a hearty amen there to Elizabeth's conclusion

And so you're thinking yeah butterflies on your Bible people aren't doing this. This is this is wacky

You're you're making this up Google it no We're not making this up.

So I see a lot of Websites linking back to a website called

Illustrated Faith And I don't know if this woman started this phenomenon or not

I can't quite go back to the original the originator of the Bible art journaling movement but at Illustrated Faith the

Owner over there, her name is Shanna Noel and She writes about herself.

I've always had a passion for capturing the little details I want to remember ten years from now when

I discovered paper scrapbooking through Studio Calico in the summer of 2012 I fell in love with the whole process

But it wasn't until I started using my journaling Bible that I really felt the meaning behind what I was creating

I was extremely nervous to share my new form of worship as I wasn't sure how people would react to it looking back

I'm so glad I listened to the whisper that God put on my heart. Does your heart have ears?

Why is God whispering to everybody's heart? I feel like this doesn't happen to me, and I'm very thankful Looking back.

I am so glad that I listened to the whisper that God put on my heart says Shanna Noel To share with you all because from the moment

I shared that first post on my blog in early 2014 has been a wildfire that just keeps growing

By sharing that I was documenting my faith right there in my Bible it turned the light bulb on for so many women

Yes, it's okay to use the God the gifts God has given you to glorify him

So God whispered on her heart to draw pictures of flowers and butterflies in her

Bible so Another website

Rebecca R. Jones calm And says this website helps you encounter

Jesus through creativity You don't encounter Jesus through your creativity you encounter

Jesus through the Word of God Do you want to know about Jesus don't sit down and draw a picture and maybe

God gifted you with artistic talent That's amazing share that absolutely you can glorify him with that That's not how you encounter him you encounter the

Lord Jesus Christ in his Word You want to know Jesus? He's given you a lot of pages 66 books.

Okay. There's a lot of them and They all point to Christ. Why is that not good enough for you?

Why do you have to get your crayons out in order to encounter Jesus? Why is the

Word of God not sufficient for you? Because that's what you're saying when you're saying that you need to encounter

Jesus through creativity So Rebecca R. Jones Says that Bible art journaling is part of the growing

Illustrated faith and Bible doodling movement where many are creating on the pages of their

Bible The idea is to engage more freely with the Word of God in new ways and to record

Personally inspiring scriptures in creative and artistic ways which serve to remind us of moments in our personal journey with God So here we are taking these verses out of context again

But it reminds you of your personal journey, so it must be okay and so Rebecca Jones has a

Bible art journaling challenge where you can Meditate on God's Word through creative play.

That's the key Now to her credit she says this challenge is not about combining our devotional time or reading plans as a community

But she does give this challenge of drawing in your Bible So many days a week or whatever so That is all a means of encountering

Jesus through creativity She says that God is calling the many nations of his people to share his creativity with the world

Maybe God is calling us to preach the Word in season and out of season

But the time is coming When they will not endure sound doctrine

Another website that is all about this Bible journaling Bible art journaling

It's called thinkingcloset .com And the writer here says when

I first discovered the journaling Bible and illustrated faith hashtags on Instagram Instagram it blew my mind

You see since I got my first teen study Bible in middle school I've always written and doodled in the margins of my

Bibles I'm a visual learner And if I don't engage with a text or sermon by moving my pen chances are good that I won't remember any of it ten

Minutes later Seriously, it's like I have amnesia now. Let me pause here Ladies and say

I'm not condemning you if you underline or highlight or take notes in your Bible We do have to be careful of that and I say this from experience

You know you highlight a verse and you come back to it later and that verse is what stands out to you But the whole context the whole passage is important And we know that we need to be careful about taking verses out of context that being said

I do write in my Bible with pencil I moved away from using pen some time ago and Starting to doodle in your

Bible, I think maybe then indicates a lack of focus on the

Word of God At the same time some people retain things by doing something else

You know and to an extent I'm one of those people I can Identify with this woman who says that she does not engage with a text or sermon by moving my pen chances are good

I won't remember any of it ten minutes later. I take notes sermon notes largely because it helps

Reinforce the truths in my mind if I write it down by hand And I've even found in my my

College my undergraduate and graduate coursework when I take notes by computer by typing

I do not retain it as well as writing with a pen and things like that have been proven That's just how we retain information, so I I don't

I'm not trying to Disparage any any of that any sort of note -taking or anything to that effect

But this is concerning this mindset of these people who do this Bible art journaling now the same author here at Thinkingcloset .com

I want you to see how she Starts out her post She writes there's an artistic movement sweeping the margins of Bibles everywhere, and I'm joining in Now she writes before we go any further

I wanted to acknowledge that some of you may find the Bible offensive Or maybe you have an aversion to it for whatever reason or maybe you want to get into reading it

But it's a struggle to understand or even believe that's okay We're all unique people at different points in our life journey, and I won't judge you for that That's not what this is about but see she has just stopped there she has just Brushed past the most important thing if someone finds the

Bible offensive They are not saved if someone has an aversion to the Bible They are not saved or they're in Deep sin if they have been saved and are avoiding the

Word of God because they're convicted by it If you have a deep aversion to the Bible you very likely are not saved why those who are saved love

God's Word She says maybe you want to get into reading it But it's a struggle to understand or even believe the

Holy Spirit illuminates our mind to understand the scriptures So she's now brushed past those people need the

Word of God not to draw doodles Inside of it. They need to read what's already there.

What's been given to us by God and And and be saved They need to know the gospel and we know the gospel from from the

Word of God How how will they hear if if we do not preach the truth?

They need to know the gospel and the gospel is found in the Word of God It is the power of God unto salvation writes

Paul in Romans 1 She's just brushed past that that's okay. If you don't like the

Bible, we're all at different points in our life journey. Yeah, but But you need what what what have you what have you done?

I'm stammering. I can't even I have no words you have just Completely brushed under the rug the most important thing in the world

So that you can talk about your doodles She goes on she says who am

I to judge? I'm a hot mess when it comes to my relationship with God seriously She says for example

I've got major control issues stemming from a lack of faith and I've always struggled with false guilt about not sticking with a regular routine of Bible reading

So you're so you don't judge others because you're a hot mess It's time to examine our faith ladies if this is the flippant attitude we have towards the

Word of God and toward our own Faith or our own faith claim as the case may be

She goes on sadly Then says one thing

I'm learning right now is that if you look closely at scripture and how Jesus spent his time on earth He actually hung out with the hot messes a whole lot more than the religious leaders

He didn't ask people to get their act together before coming in coming to him But rather met them where they were and showered them with love and their adultery and their brokenness and their doubt and fear

He called them to repent Go and sin no more It wasn't just hey, it's okay.

I know that you are Sinning you're in adultery It's okay.

I'm just going to love you. It's fine Just be there where you are that that is not the

Jesus of the Bible and this woman does not know the Jesus of the Bible Or she would not write these things

But she goes on again sadly Right now I'm working on bringing my mess into my

Bible reading I hope each one of you can find encouragement and creative inspiration in these posts no matter where you are with or without God It makes no sense.

It makes no sense. There's no gospel here There's no gospel She goes on and she writes about the

Bible that she is using for this and I'm finding this is a common denominator And many of these

Bible art journaling websites, they recommend the ESV journaling Bible now I Obviously the

ESV journaling Bible maybe not obviously But I assume the ESV journaling Bible was not designed and published so that people could paint

All over the pages of the Word of God It has extra wide margins with little lines so that you can take your notes in your

Bible This seems to be the Bible of choice for these Women I've only found women so far who are engaging in this

Bible art journaling so There's that that is not a commentary on the

ESV journaling Bible. It's just an observation but this notion of drawing and and painting in your

Bible It is saying that scripture is not enough something interesting

That Elizabeth observed in her article on the Bible art journaling was kind of the link to Another activity that is becoming quite popular and that is coloring books

We are seeing a lot of coloring books for adults, and it's it's been invading subtly the quote -unquote

Christian realm and this is a Spiritual thing that you can just sit and color and encounter

Jesus through your coloring and I think we talked about that once here before on the show and Elizabeth observes that Bible art journaling and this coloring that's going on this spiritual coloring is actually mimicking the coloring of Hindu Mandalas She even points out that there is a coloring book available on Amazon where you color the actual

Hindu mandalas this coloring book it takes these these

Hindu pictures these Hindu mandalas and then Overlays it with verses from Christian hymns.

And so now it's a Christian coloring book. Really? What are we doing? But this

Bible art journaling is as Elizabeth says melding With this coloring of this

Hindu practice of coloring these mandalas. She gives this quote about the mandala coloring book and says for the unfamiliar a mandala is a sacred symbol in Hinduism and Buddhism made from a nest of squares and circles that represent the cosmos as The Asian Art Museum put it mandalas are not just images to view but worlds to enter after recreating the image in their mind's eye

Meditators imaginatively enter its realm and then she goes back to the quote from from Rebecca Jones that we just actually read where she writes that Bible art journaling is part of the

Growing illustrated faith and Bible doodling movement The idea is to engage more freely with the Word of God in new ways and record personally inspiring scriptures and creative and art

And artistic ways serve to remind us of moments in our personal journey with God. It sounds very similar, doesn't it?

And so now we've got this Bible art journaling which is kind of I don't know if it's a spinoff of the coloring or if the coloring is a spinoff of the

Bible art journaling But I came across this article on the website for a quote -unquote

Christian magazine for teenagers ladies Teenagers guard your teenagers.

The website is devoseen and so the address is devoseen .upperroom .org

and The article is entitled color yourself closer to God and it's written by Robin Pippin And she writes as an adult

I am sometimes embarrassed about how much I like to color when my children were little I enjoyed having an excuse to sit down with Them they're coloring books in a box of crayons

I love the relaxing and contemplative motion of filling an empty space with splashes and scribbles of colors in these moments

I felt as if I were allowed to be a child again in The last few years while working with the children's spirituality program called the way of the child

I have discovered the practice of coloring mandalas Which has added a whole new dimension to my coloring

The purpose of coloring mandalas is spiritual in nature designed to bring me closer to God and to help me get in touch with my heart

What are we why are we getting in touch with our heart? What does that mean? You mean the heart that's deceitful and desperately wicked and sick and who can understand it that one?

I'd rather not get in touch with that one. Not too closely. I'd rather that God purify it

Mandalas this article goes on our designs with a center based on a circle It means circle in the

Indian language of Sanskrit this This article kind of conveniently leaves out the fact that it's

Hindu It does acknowledge that other religions use this practice, but it kind of leaves out that it's a

Hindu practice She does write mandalas are used in other religious traditions and were around long before the

Christian era But they've also been used by Christians through the ages. She says Hildegard of Bingen a 12th century

Benedictine nun. Well, that's not Christian created beautiful mandalas to express her visions and beliefs

Okay, the labyrinth is a mandala the center of which represents the heart of God many

Christians walk the labyrinth As a way of praying with their bodies walking inward to the heart of God and walking back out into the world

No, no, no, no, no, no. No, that is not how we pray Pray then in this way

Walk the labyrinth until you get to the heart of God. No not in Scripture ladies, no

The article goes on why color them? Why color the mandalas in this hurried world focusing on one thing is relaxing even if we are experts at multitasking

We all need times when we can allow our minds to rest So we can listen for the still small voice of God For some people coloring mandalas is a liberating way to pray

While the hands are active and creative the mind has a chance to rest and to focus on God But our mind should be active when we're praying

Do we not see the examples of prayer and Scripture and we're running?

Long on our time here ladies, or we would go to them, but you know, look at Matthew 6 with me

Matthew 6 9 pray then in this way our Father who is in heaven How would be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven

Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors and do not lead us into Temptation but deliver us from evil.

This is a prayer where your mind is very active ladies and this is not one that we have to Repeat in a rote manner, but this prayer that Christ gives us as an example shows us

You know, what do you do first in prayer? You acknowledge the one to whom you are praying our Father You're in heaven.

You are high and lofty and transcendent Acknowledge God and acknowledge his attributes and praise him and worship him

Then after we've acknowledged God then, you know, then our priorities and prayer kind of realign we may go with a bunch of needs and wants or things we think we need and think we want and when we focus our

Mind on God and on Christ the one who saved us our prayer kind of windows down, doesn't it?

And then we pray for our daily provision, which we know God will give to us. It's just there later in the same chapter

The discussing God's provision from from verse 25 on and verse 33 6

Matthew 6 33 Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. God will provide for his children and so We focus our prayer on God the

Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit our triune God And then we come to him with our needs and we confess our sin before him

That's an active prayer your mind is not resting when you are praying it is active

Read John 17 sometime the high priestly prayer our

Lord's mind was active But Robin Pippin and her article about coloring mandalas to get closer to God says go ahead pick up a crayon and color yourself

Closer to God. It's really okay. It might be fun ladies remember this is in a magazine for teenagers

She ends this and says if you enjoy coloring mandalas consider making this practice a regular part of your

Devo time. Really? Huh, you know because I feel like no,

I don't feel I know That our devotional time should be spent in the

Word of God and in prayer active minds active in prayer to our

Lord reading his word because his word is sufficient and All of this what this all comes down to all of this jabbering that that I've been doing about this

Bible art journaling Ladies and now going on to the coloring Yes, we're looking at this this mandala thing is connecting

Hinduism with Christianity. No, that's wrong That should not be happening. And then this

Bible art journaling is kind of feeding into that same movement It's all we're going with the arts and that just makes us feel all warm and fuzzy and creative inside It is saying that the scriptures are not sufficient

I'm not condemning art I'm not condemning painting or even coloring.

I know a lot of people who like to color on a rainy day But doing it as a spiritual practice.

No No, no, because we have what we need Christ is sufficient for us pray to him actively pray to him.

His word is Sufficient and when you want to add to that word with pretty colors and pretty pictures of butterflies and flowers and Unicorns in your pages with paint and crayons

I mean there there are lists of the supplies that you need to do this Bible art journaling

Stop finger painting and start reading your Bible reading it Don't just pick out a verse you like and then draw draw it all over your page

Why? Because there's more verses around it there's so much truth in here.

This is truth Sanctify them in the truth. Thy word is truth John 17 17 this book ladies and this is

God's Word It is sufficient John MacArthur writes the written words of Scripture are binding

Apostolic preaching was equally equally binding for those who heard it from the Apostles own mouths Beyond that Scripture lays no burden on anyone's shoulders

But thank God his own word assures us that Scripture is fully sufficient to bring us to salvation

And to equip us spiritually for all that God demands of us He says we have the

Bible's own assurance that it is a sufficient rule of faith for the Christian Scripture alone says

MacArthur is sufficient to lead us to salvation and fully equip us for life and eternity Therefore we may know with certainty that every essential aspect of the apostolic message is included in Scripture You don't need to pick up your crayons to hear that still small voice from God He's spoken in his word ladies, and it is amazing

Open it read it cherish it love it, and I feel like a broken record because we say this every show

There are so many Fads out there that are distracting us from the

Word of God And they look and sound so biblical because you're in your

Bible Well, what could be more biblical than that you're ignoring the Bible and you're splattering it with you

Please just stop it God's Word is enough

And pray that he would show you that so that you would be content with this amazing gift.

He's given us On that note ladies

Until next time get in your Bibles Get on your knees and get equipped.