As you can certainly attest reading, studying, hearing, memorizing and meditating on The Holy Bible is vitally important for our spiritual walk with the LORD, particularly during these tumultuous times.
I’ve discovered another method of staying in the Word of God, and that is hand writing Scripture.
Hand writing Scripture has helped me grieve my mother’s death and deal with life’s daily challenges. Hand writing Scripture feeds my spirit and causes me to be more attuned to God’s voice. Hand writing Scripture renews my mind and disciplines me in staying in the Word of God every day. And hand writing Scripture helps me in another way. I’ll explain.
Many if not most of us autofill online forms on computer, input texts on smartphone, or type emails on tablet. While these smart devices have positive benefits I’ve noticed that relying on my laptop, iPhone and iPad has had a negative effect. I’ve noticed throughout the years my ability to write with my right hand had diminished. In other words, it was almost as if I was slowly forgetting how to write. However, I am pleased to report handwriting Scripture over the past several weeks has reversed this syndrome.
When I decided weeks ago to hand write Bible verses I initially thought about buying three-ring spiral bound notebooks. But I wanted to better archive and memorialize my Bible written text, so I purchased hardbound blank books instead.
It was easy for me to pick out what writing instrument to use. Back in the late 70s to mid 80s —when I attended Sacramento City College and California State University, Sacramento— I wrote class notes with BIC 4 Color pens.
Last December I went to Bel-Air to see if my local grocery store sold those BIC pens. Unfortunately, Bel-Air didn’t have any. Mildly disappointed, I walked to the checkout line, paid for my groceries and exited the store.
So there I stood outside Bel-Air that chilly Tuesday (December 28) night in the parking lot and contemplated my next move. I thought about going to a stationery store. Then I considered ordering BIC pens online. I looked across the street. I saw the red “CVS pharmacy” sign. The LORD told me to check there for BIC pens.
Moments later I entered the glass sliding door. I looked at the ceiling signage to locate the stationery section. I asked a CVS Pharmacy employee where the pens were located. She said she was on break, but she still walked me to the northwest corner of the store anyway. I complimented her on her great customer service and thanked her. After she walked away I looked at the assortment of pens hung on product racks. I looked for the iconic BIC 4 Color black, blue, red and green pens. I saw some, but not the four familiar colors I used to write class notes back in my college days. I picked up one BIC pen and closely examined it. I noted that BIC replaced the green ink for purple ink in its 50th Birthday edition. (I later learned French engineer Marcel Bich [1914-1994] and Édouard Buffard [1908-1996] set up business creating writing instrument parts in 1944, according to BIC’s website). I snatched up four BIC pens, paid for them and exited the store.
Two days later I sat down at the dining room table and wrote Genesis Chapter 1 in black ink. The following day I wrote Genesis Chapter 2 in blue ink. The next day I wrote Genesis Chapter 3 in black ink. I wrote in that black/blue alternating ink color pattern so in retrospect, I could visually differentiate between chapters. I also wrote in the margin of the pages the month, date, year, verse numbers and page numbers (at bottom) in purple ink.
Sometime I spoke the verse while writing Genesis’ 50 chapters. Other times I wrote the 1,533 verses in silence. I penned, in my 157-page blue blank book, a total of 38,262 words. That’s how many words and verses in the King James Version of the Book of Genesis, Pentecostal theologian Finis Jennings Dake —author of Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible— tabulated years ago.
At the time of writing this blog I’ve almost completed hand writing The Gospel According to Matthew. When I complete writing Matthew I’ll probably continue writing Mark, Luke and then John. I’ll be led of the LORD where I’ll go after handwriting the four Gospels. I’ll probably start writing the 15 Books of the Prophets, since I don’t know much about the latter section of The Old Testament.
Perhaps, after reading this blog, you will be inspired to hand write Bible verses as well.
I wrote and am writing one chapter a day. If you decide to handwrite Bible passages let Holy Spirit lead you on what book(s) or chapter(s) to write.
You could repeatedly write a chapter, or do as I am doing and write an entire book. You could repeatedly write a verse, verses or chapter. You could write what a particular passage means to you. You could journal while hand writing Scripture. You could be transparent and acknowledge and write “LORD, I don’t understand what I am reading. Please reveal to me what this means” as you sit there in solitude and wait to hear God speak to you. You could be affirming and note “LORD, this passage is helping me deal with this situation.” You could look up a particular word in a concordance, and write all the Bible verses on that word. Those topics could be on faith, healing, hope, joy, love, mercy, peace, salvation, etc., etc., etc. You could look up a Bible character, write all the verses about him/her and develop a profile on that person.
Let Holy Spirit lead you to what Bible passages to write, how to write and even when to write, so it doesn’t become ritualistic.
I strongly encourage you to handwrite Bible passages. You’ll get closer to God. It’s really a good way of staying in the Word of God, and it will exercise the left hemisphere of your brain —that part of the brain which enables us to write.
In closing, I am reminded of Proverbs 3:3-4: “Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:
“So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.”
Writing Scripture is tantamount to inscribing God’s Word on our hearts.
—Ronald F. Owens Jr.