F.E.A.S.T.

This week we are talking and learning about the F.E.A.S.T. method of Scripture Journaling.   As we continue on our journey of diving deep into the meaning of Scripture, I hope that you are growing deeper in your relationship with God.  Remember this is your personal journey in the Word of God, it's not a contest or comparison to how other's journal...yours will be perfect just the way you decide.  Just give yourself 15 minutes a day to write it out or if you have more time spend as much time as you want and let you be your own creative self.  Let's get started.

F is for Focus

As in some of the other methods, focus is simply asking God to help you focus your heart and mind on Him:  What do you want me to learn today?  This is probably the most important part of this method.  Focus is where God will speak to you through the Scripture.  He will highlight a certain word(s) or give your immediately understanding of what it is He wants you to discern.  What a beautiful way to spend some time with the Lord.  You can go even deeper with finding other Scriptures of what He has shown you.

E is for Engage

Engaging is what we do after we read the passage.  When you write down your passage think back to school days and when we were taught and used the 5 W's...do you remember those?  Who, what, when, where and why.  Let's face it some of us may have all the time in the world to journal but some of us might only have 15 minutes, so when you come to this step just be as specific as you can with the time you have.  Just know that God will multiply your efforts and give you blessings of Spiritual fruit.  So let's take a quick look at what the 5 W's meanings.  

• WHO wrote it?
• WHAT genre is it?
• WHEN was it written?
• WHERE did it go?
• Why was it written?

A is for Assess

Assess the meaning is where you will make notes of anything that you do not understand so you can check them by using commentaries, reference Bibles, and perhaps even Bible dictionaries.  Keep in mind who the audience was at the time the passage was written.  Was there a lesson, or a command that needs to be learned and obeyed?  Is there a warning of something to stay away from, a sin, or a consequence?  What was the writer telling the audience at this time.

S is for Spark

S is where we begin to see the Spark of the  Holy Spirit revealing and transforming your study time.  This step is where He will enlighten you on how the passage is relevant in today's time and different from what it was meant for at the time it was written.  This is a perfect time to ask God, how does this apply to me?  For instance in the Old Testament believers were required to perform animal sacrifices.  However, in the New Testament Jesus became our ultimate sacrifice and therefore we do not need to perform sacrifices of the Old Testament.

T is for Turn

Turn toward God is the final step in this method of Scripture journaling.  This step is where you close out your time with God and thank Him for all the He has shown and revealed to you during your journaling time together.

And One Final Thought

As we look back on our weeks of learning new methods together, make sure to try this new method that was developed by the myOTA community, a community that creates resources to keep people engaged in God's Word.  This was a fun method to come across in my research and I hope you give it a try.  Next week I will bring you another new Scripture journaling method I discovered in my research.  If you have missed any of the other posts in this series please sign up for the journal series here.  And we would love for you to join us in our private Facebook group You Ministries