What happens when you smash a Bible together with a journal? You get a Journible (get it?). What’s a Journible? Well, essentially it’s a Bible study tool. It’s a book, rather like a journal, with a place to write a Scripture text on the right leaf and a place to write notes and observations on the left. It’s rather difficult to describe, so let me turn to the official description to see if they can do better.
The Journible™ series of books are hard-backed with gold foil and a bookmark ribbon. As you open the book, you will see chapter and verse numbers on the right-hand pages. These are conveniently spaced according to the length of each verse. However, these pre-formatted lines are left blank for you to hand-write your Journible™ book of yourself. The idea for this comes from Deuteronomy 17:18, where God commands the kings of Israel to hand-write their own copy of the Torah, or book of the law. The purpose of this was so that they would carry it with them always, read it, learn from it, and lead the people accordingly. It’s interesting to note that 3400 years later, educators have been discovering that most people learn kinesthetically, by doing or writing things out for themselves.
From these two ideas together then, comes the conception of this series of books: The 17:18 Series. As you look at the left-hand pages, the lines are left blank for personal notes and comments on the text. There are also some questions scattered in light print throughout these pages. These questions are meant to guide you in thought as you study the book of Proverbs and to help you understand the types of questions you should be asking of the text.
Does that make sense? If you want to get a bit more of a taste, here are two page samples you can download: Galatians sample page | Proverbs sample page.
You see how it works? Every day you right a Scripture text on the right side of the page and then you write notes and observations on the left. Occasionally there will be a question there to guide your notes and focus your study. And that’s it. It’s meant to be a tool that will help you get into the Word as you write it out yourself and as you seek to understand and apply it. How cool is that?
Why would you buy one? For your personal devotions; as a gift for someone else; as a tool for group Bible study or youth group Bible study; as a means to help you memorize long portions of Scripture.
One of the unfortunate things about Journibles is that they suffer from quite an ugly and uninformative web site. The site really does not offer a good view of what will actually show up at your home should you order one. I had seen the site and been unimpressed; it was only when I bumped into a Journible at a conference that I was impressed. So you may just have to take my word for this one.
You can buy Journibles (exclusively for the time being) at Reformation Heritage Books. The current volumes are:
- 1 Timothy – Hebrews
- Galatians, Ephesians, Philipians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians
- James – Jude
- John
- Proverbs
- Romans
