Life Journal

What is the Life Journal?

The Life Journal is how we are learning to hear God speak through His Word each day. Part of the Life Journal is a Bible reading plan, but it’s way more than a reading plan. Inside the pages of your Life Journal is a method that can help you hear God speak to you through His Word.

How to Do the Life Journal:

  • Choose:
    • A Time (whenever you are at your best)
    • A Place (somewhere free of distractions)
    • A Plan (Classic Plan or Express Plan)
  • Ask God to Speak to You
  • Read today’s Bible reading, and look for a verse or theme that stands out
  • Write on a New Journal Page
    • Today’s Date
    • Use the SOAP method outlined in your Life Journal
      • Scripture
      • Observation
      • Application
      • Prayer

Need a Life Journal?

Pick up a Life Journal in the church lobby or call the church office (423-344-8327) to request one.

Join a Small Group!

Need some encouragement in your daily walk with the Lord? Join a Small Group to do the Life Journal with others.

Frequently Asked Questions

It’s okay. Don’t be ashamed. Everybody struggles at times to understand what they’re reading. The important thing to ask: “is Jesus transforming me from the inside out?”

Jesus said the goal in reading the word is to act on what you do understand. As you do what you do understand, then as you revisit what you don’t understand, you’ll learn more and more by the Holy Spirit.

Life happens, and you’ll miss sometime. You may even wake up and realize you haven’t read in a while. That’s ok. Resist the urge to go back and check all the boxes. Your connection with Jesus is much more important than checking off a box to say that you did it all!

You can always go back and read or listen to any passages that you miss if you want to do that.

There are groups of people at Bayside who are doing the life journal together. Join them, or grab a few folks from your small group, others you know at Bayside, or maybe even somebody else you’d want to ask to try it with you. Let us know if we can help you get started with a Life Journal group.

The goal of bible study is to become more like Christ. Often, what we need most is to simply obey one truth at a critical moment. Choosing to follow one truth each day isn’t too hard, but when you do this 365 times over a year, these small decisions make you more and more like Jesus.

This moves you from simply learning about God to communicating with the person of God. SOAP (the acronym in the Life Journal) reminds us that when you interact with the Bible, it’s not just a book, you are interacting with God himself.