started reading the Bible

[ellarose]

I agree with Poke,

I wouldn't read "the message" as it's one man paraphrasing the bible. He takes a lot of things out of context and tends to misinterpret them so it's not a good idea if you don't already know scripture. The NIV at least had a team of people working on it. The bibles which are harder to understand tend to be the more accurate ones. I like reading the ESV personally.

[irishcowboy]

take your time through it, reading, you can read it several different ways, one way is to read it like a story, just reading through it, other ways is to read it chapter by chapter, gleaning as much from it as you can before moving on..... both have the advantages....

we have a chronological Bible (where every chapter is placed in date line order) this takes a person from cover to cover from Eden to the AMEN in Revelation.

this version may have the same story two and sometimes three times right after each other, for the entire Bible is there, and when placed in order, there are passages from several books that happened at the same time and same event.....

it is difficult, some times, to fully understand everything.

to read the New Test. 5 minutes aday, a person can complete the entire N.T. with in a year.....

the O.T. is about twice the size of the N.T. so reading it about 10 min a day, a person can complete it in a year....

15 min a day and both new and old can be completed with in the year...

it is said that if a person treated it like a full time job, a person can complete the entire Bible with in two work weeks (80 hours or less)

I have heard people say that they do not read the O.T. cause that has nothing to do with Christians........

I say, that with out the O.T. the N.T. has no foundation and with out the foundation, can be found to be with out Authority.... for with out the O.T. do we really understand the culture? do we really know why Christ came?

we need the Old to understand theNew......

if a person needs to read a passage three or four times to get the jist of it great.....

studying the Bible, it is best to take a book a year and study the book over and over again through out the year then to try and do the entire Bible....

Global University (Berean School of the Bible) has a good study on How To Study The Bible.....

I know that every time I read the Word, I find new things, new information, new knowledge that God has allowed me to have.. I know that even passages I have read many times, they is still new stuff to glean out....

there have been times I have read a passage and when I finished, I had no clue as to what I had just read..... even when reading it over and over again, almost like looking out the window during a heavy fog, you can see something across the road, but you can not make out what it is...... when this happens, sometimes it is good to go to some light reading, such as Psalm......

I have heard that if a person reads a chapter of Proverbs every day, month in and month out (Prov. 1 for day one of the month, Prov 2 for day two of the month......so forth and so on) that it will start changing a persons life, for after reading through it a few times, they will start working towards living that way....

so much stuff to find..... so much stuff to learn.... and 10 life times we could not get it all......

hope this helps....

mike

[tjhawks1]

The enemy will also try to get you not to read or understand the bible. We all struggle with understanding the bible sometimes. As others have said there are plenty of resources to help you with this. I have commentary in my bible that I always read when I struggle with verses, understanding and culture.

[OneLight]

P.S.....The Message Bible is great for beginners, it simple and can be followed so easy with the KJV. Did I say beginners? I've been saved for 23 years, and I still go to BibleGateway and put it up.

About The Message Bible. I would not recommend it for anyone. If you need to have something easy to read, then the easiest version I would recommend is the NIV.

[~Shalhevet~]

Thanks for all the tips. Very helpful.

I have a book called "Through the Bible in One Year" which has been really helpful. It basically gives you the scriptures to read and has a place on the side of each page to right notes.

[2Joyful]

Thanks all..being in this race a long time hadn't been any problem to me jotful

[Fez]

Re-reading! Man, I sometimes fall asleep reading the bible, and wake up with the cover stuck to the side of my face, because I re-read verses over and over, so don't sweat it! I have KJV, NSAB, NIV and ESV (which I recently obtained and I really like). Also if you download e - sword you can use it as a bible "search engine". If you are looking for a particular verse and don't quite know where to find it, search for it on e-sword, and then go back to the printed word.

The reason I have e-sword and a lot of dowloaded bibles is that there are commenteries and translations from the greek I use, and it it always on my personal laptop at work, so a bible is always with me (shhhh....I am typing this from work at the moment.....I won't use my official computer for stuff like this). And I am in between meetings so I have a few minutes!

Another fun thing I do is to print out one verse, and then I put it up on the mirror in my bathroom, on the fridge, and on the dashboard of my car, and I study the verse for a week, before trying to ingest it with the rest of the chapter.

At the moment it is "John 1:5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not". KJV from John. (at school the teacher would have said that the tenses don't make sense! John was a master at doing this!). There is so much more to this simple verse if one meditates on it for a week, especially if the present and past tense John uses is taken into account!

Blessings

[~Shalhevet~]

Re-reading! Man, I sometimes fall asleep reading the bible, and wake up with the cover stuck to the side of my face, because I re-read verses over and over, so don't sweat it!

That makes me feel better!

[EricH]

I would switch to something like the NIV and maybe start in the Gospel of John

[paul1149]

When I started reading the Bible many years ago, before I was saved, I also started on page one and read consecutively. But I wouldn't recommend it. At least for a new believer, some parts, such as the "begats", simply are not as edifying as others. And there's so much in the OT that I found myself getting lost in the forest.

Also, if you're new to Bible reading, you're adding extra difficulty with the KJV. I found it took a bit of getting used to the phraseology before I could think along with it.

bb,

p.