In regard to the Shabbat Prophetic message, I recently received the question,
How were these books, chapters, verses selected in this instance?
Interesting that this question came when it did, as I have been thinking of sharing the unique way the Scriptures get chosen.
The first Shabbat prophetic message came in May of 2015. Many of you know that I post a Scripture Picture with every Bible study that I post on this page. As you can see from the first Shabbat Prophetic post, I was already in the habit of writing a one paragraph summary of the week’s Bible studies in my prayer journal every Shabbat. I do this to better hear from the Father, to fine tune my ears and see if He has been trying to get a message across to me that the busyness of life has drowned out.
This particular week, as I looked through the Bible studies, I noticed that every picture posted with the study that week seemed to repeat a message about Shavuot, which was coming up. I made note of the Scriptures on the pictures in my prayer journal, and as I did so, I heard the Lord speak to me about Shavuot. I recorded what I heard (which you can read in the post).
The following week, I looked at that week’s pictures again, and lo and behold, they formed a chiastic structure – just the pictures, mind you, when lined up one after another from Sunday through Saturday. And with the structure was another message. Every week I looked at the pictures, thinking surely there was no way this phenomenon would continue, and lo and behold, it continued. LOL.
You can look through the hebraic life category on this blog to see the various Shabbat Prophetic messages. You will notice right away there is not one for every week. When life gets unbearably busy, I can get behind in my prayer journal (as happened recently with Hurricane Irma). Some weeks I just was not able to work on the message. But every week that I have been able, the structure has been there, and the message has been there. To this day it continues to floor me. And it also teaches me, as I have thought about it, that God is infinitely creative, and He is constantly speaking to people, perhaps in a way that is unique to them and their gifts and talents and interests, if we will unplug from the busyness of life, and find a way to tune in our ears and listen.
Many of you know I also post a daily Scripture Picture on my Facebook Scripture Picture page. At some point those Scriptures got put into the weekly mix for the Shabbat Prophetic. And then earlier this year I started posting Good morning pictures on social media, with little Scriptures on them, just because I like encouraging people that everything will be okay. 🙂 And at some point this summer I tested putting the Good morning scriptures in the mix for the Shabbat Prophetic, and sure enough the structures were still there and the message was still there. This is a snip from my prayer journal:
The verses are from the Scripture Pictures that get posted with the Bible study, from the Good morning picture, and from the daily Scripture Picture post on Facebook, for that day. Every day’s entry is like that, along with the notes of the things God is teaching me, what is going on in my life, and the things I am praying for with the accompanying prayer strategies (which I took out for this snip). After Shabbat, I take each day’s entry, exactly in its order as it appears in my journal, and line it up like this:
Some days a Good morning scripture will be missing, and even occasionally (although more rare) a Bible study scripture will be missing, That was a day where there was no Good morning picture posted or no Bible study picture posted. And then after I have prayed over the list and asked God to show me His message, I work it out in my prayer journal until it is completed, like this:
How are the Bible study Scripture pictures chosen?
Usually, since time is always a factor, if a picture for that section of Scripture is already done in my files, that is the one that gets chosen. I am just being real, folks! If there is no picture already done, I read over the passage to see which Scripture leaps out at me, that should be made into a picture. And then I make it. 🙂
How do the Good morning Scriptures get chosen?
I generally make the Good morning pictures the day before, and the first thing I do to choose the Scripture, is go to BibleGateway.com and see what their verse of the day is. If I like it; if it’s an encouraging, uplifting Scripture, then it goes on the picture! The majority of the time this is the process. If I doesn’t sit well with me for whatever reason, I will look in that same chapter of Scripture to see if there is something that sits better.
How do the Scripture Pictures get chosen for the Facebook page?
I have a strict progression that I follow: Old Testament then New Testament on alternating days. For the Old Testament days, I follow Torah – optional History books – Job and / or Psalms – Optional Proverbs and / or Ecclesiastes or Song of Solomon – Prophets. Then I return again to Torah and repeat. For the New Testament days, I follow Gospel, then Epistle, then return again to Gospel and repeat.
Now, I have been posting on Scripture Pictures on Facebook for several years. When a picture has been featured, I mark a little notation for myself in my files. So when it is time to choose the next picture, I first look at whatever is in my files that has not been featured yet. Out of that usually very small pool, I choose the one I like the best, or that is the newest, or that I am loudly hearing in my heart. What if all the pictures in a pool have already been featured (as is the case right now with my Gospels files)? I look through and just look for the one that leaps out at me, and feature it again. Usually since it has been a good year or more since it was last featured, I just go ahead and feature it again. If I have time, I specifically make a new picture in order to feature it that week, but it doesn’t always get done.
And there you have it. I rarely think about whether a picture will fit with the Shabbat Prophetic when I am choosing them – in fact, if I think about the Shabbat Prophetic at all, it is usually, “Oooo boy, there is no way this one will fit! But it is the one available, so …” LOL. God always surprises me.
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