Happy Bastille Day, friends, and welcome to another Bible journal with me post! I’ve been reading and enjoying a devotional book called The Grace of Les Miserables. It explores how each of the characters in this iconic French novel/play/musical-movie learn to give and receive grace. And you can probably guess why I love it so much – the author is speaking my LANGUAGE and it’s awesome! Today, in celebration of the unofficial day of independence for the nation of France, I wanted to take you through the proces of journaling one of my favorite quotes from the devotional book. Hope you enjoy!
The verses – Romans 5 and Luke 23:34
The whole process was inspired by a quote from the first chapter of the devotional book, which said: “Grace is offered even before we are aware we are in need, it justifies us so that we can stop justifying ourselves, and it is the power of God to transform who we are.”
I’ve been spending a lot of time recently in Romans, specifically Romans 5, so this passage naturally came to mind when I read about grace. Here’s the focus verse for today’s Bible journaling process:
For one will hardly die for a righteous person; though perhaps for the good person someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:7-8 NASB20
I loved the process so much in my “fandoms” (Message Canvas) Bible that I decided to duplicate it in my personal Bible. Since I’ve already journaled both pages in Romans 5, I journaled this take-away in Luke 23:34, which says,
[But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”] And they cast lots, dividing His garments among themselves.
Luke 23:34
I love how both of these verse connect to the quote from the devotional book. Each of them speaks to God’s offering of grace before we were even aware that we were in need of it. It speaks to His offering of forgiveness without expectation of us earning it, and the finality and completion of Christ’s work for uson the Cross.
Now to the process!
The process
Step One: Acrylic paint background
The first step in my Bible journaling process for Bastille Day was to create a background inspired by the French flag. I used two different shades of red and two shades of blue to do this.
Step Two: Stamp with white paint!
I loved how this step turned out! I took a texture stamp that happens to have different definitions of the word “grace,” painted it over with white acrylic paint, and put it down over the background. As I picked it up, the blue paint that wasn’t quite dry yet stuck to the stamp and added an extra layer of texture to the red layer above it! So cool!
Step Three: Stamp/Letter the quote
The final step in this process was to letter/stamp out the quote onto the page. I used a letter stamp for the key words and lettered out the rest in my own handwriting. I could go back and thicken some of the lines, but for now I wanted this to be a quick-and-easy Bible journaling process.
And that’s it!
Hope you enjoyed this process. Have you ever heard of Bastille Day? Are you a fan of Les Misérables? What’s your favorite quote from the story? Id love to know!
Happy journaling!
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