My First Attempt at Verse Mapping 

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Let's keep in mind that there is no right or wrong way to verse map. In some instances teh verses will lend themselves to some very deep verse mapping, while others will be more simplistic.  My friends, do no overlook the simple. More often than not we get caught in the rut of thinking that  we have learned all there is to learn. Something so familiar becomes something we don’t give a second thought to, but just let the words roll off our tongues. This verse is way to important to become mundane and something we just repeat without truly meditating on and continually having a new hunger build inside of us. Let’s break down this very familiar, and probably one of the most memorized verses, John 3:16.

The first way I verse map is to look at the verse and see if there is anywhere I can replace pronouns with proper names. Most are God of course, but sometimes the verse is speaking to or about me. This verse is no exception.

For God so loved Kangelia that God gave His one and only Son, so that, Kangelia, who believes in God, shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Put your name in place of mine. The verse still fits and is still relevant. God loves every single one of us, and He knows each of us by our name! You can personalize that verse specific to you! I love that.

Next, I pick out words that really stand out to me and look them up in a dictionary and thesaurus. Loved, believes, perish, and eternal stand out. Let’s break them down.

Loved:  an intense feeling of deep affection

Believes: accept as true

Perish: suffer death, typically in a violent, sudden, or untimely way

Eternal: lasting or existing forever; without end or beginning

Wow! God had such an intense feeling of deep affection for me, that as long as I accept that as truth, I won’t suffer death, but rather I will last forever! When we make this personal it has such a more heartfelt meaning when it’s all written out in that way!

For God had such an intense feeling of deep affection for Kangelia, that God sent His one and only Son. As long as Kangelia accepts this as truth, Kangelia  will not die, but rather exist forever in God’s presence!

Verse mapping in the simplest of way for the deepest of meaning.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life”.

* I would like to thank Angela Marks over at http://www.intentionallygrmazing.blogspot.com/ for first introducing me to verse mapping. Please be sure to head over and check her blog out.