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How Do You Learn Everything?


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I’ve been posting online to find someone to tutor me with Bible Study. 

I even suggested ways to read the Bible Together other than in person if they wanted, such as Facetime(iPhone) or simply a phone call.

No answers. So how do I navigate the Bible and get answers to my questions when I have them as I go along? I feel overwhelmed with no one to help.

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Hi TheDarlingButterfly,

Pleased to meet you and Welcome to Worthy. You will find people here who will discuss & help you. When you get 5 posts then you can start your own thread. Go a step at a time and you will come to know some caring people who will help you with understanding God`s word in your life`s journey.

BTW A Gideon Bible (put out by a group called Gideons), has lots of life topics at the start or end, which will help you with some of your questions.

regards, Marilyn.

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Welcome to Worthy.  I moved your thread here so you can communicate without needing approval. 

I like topical studies.  Is there a question or subject you would like to discuss?

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:)   I think everyone feels overwhelmed when we first start reading the Bible.  Also, we all have questions about many things.  You'll also find that sincere Christians have disagreements over what particular parts of the Bible mean.  I've been a Christian over 40 years, have read the Bible through more times than I can remember, and there are sections that I don't understand, and sections that I have changed my opinion on what I think a few times.

The main point is that God uses the Bible to teach us about Himself.  The primary goal of Bible reading should be to learn more about God.  I think most Christians at some point have digressed from that and look to the Bible to win arguments with other Christians about particular topics.  But ultimately, the goal is to sit down and read and meditate and learn more about God when we do read the Bible.

With regard to your questions, one approach is to have someone to answer some questions.  Another approach is to learn to find answers on your own.  I'll try to give some advice here about doing that.  

Point 1: Buy a good Study Bible that is best suited for you!

I would pick a version of the Bible that is comfortable for you to read for your day to day reading.  The Bible was originally written primarily in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.  The English versions we have today are translated from those languages.  There are different ways of translating with their advantages and disadvantages.  Some hold very tightly to the original language words and grammar often resulting in stilted and unnatural sounding English.  Some translate thought for thought to provide the closest possible equivalent in English to the original.  Others (called paraphrases) translate very loosely thought for thought but contain the translators opinions more often.  Most Christians use a translation that they are comfortable with.  

(As a quick note, there are a small number of Christians that strongly believe that only their particular version is the "real" Bible.  If you do an internet search on Bible versions you will often get some hits on sites like that that will call all other versions than theirs "perversions" where they claim to prove all differences from their Bible prove that other versions are bad.)  

Here is a link to a nice comparison table of English translations.  http://www.northwest.cc/uploads/2/1/0/1/210144/bibletranslationchart.pdf  (I don't know anything about this church, just that this is a nice table.)  Physically, there are smaller print Bibles and larger print Bibles and different printing fonts.  Each translation usually is printed in different forms, some larger and smaller, some hard cover or soft cover, etc.

Also, many Bibles are printed with helpful footnotes and more information.  One particularly useful printing of the Bible is a Study Bible.  A good study Bible can be very helpful.  There are many study Bibles that contain a lot of footnotes and explanations of things.  This can be very helpful because the information is right there alongside the passages you are reading.    My wife owned a copy of the NIV Study Bible printed by Zondervan.  I found that to be a nice one. I actually "borrowed" it from her and read it myself one time through reading the footnotes and explanations.  I found it to give very balanced coverage on many things.  If you don't already have a Bible (or are considering getting a new one),  it is one worth considering.  Here's a link to a hard cover version of it at an online store I've used a lot.  https://www.christianbook.com/niv-study-bible-hardcover/9780310438922/pd/438922?event=ESRCG

One caution is that some study Bibles have notes written by one person or one particular group.  These can sometimes have a very heavy bias toward particular opinions.  I personally like the study Bibles and notes done by a group of Christians representing a range of different views.  That is part of why I liked the NIV Study Bible mentioned above.  There are definitely many good ones out there.  This is just one I'm familiar with and am comfortable recommending.

Point 2: Start reading with the Gospels and Acts

My advice would be to start reading the New Testament.  The first four books (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) are called the gospels.   These were written by 4 different people that relate different accounts of some of the things that Jesus did during His time on earth.  The first 3 cover a wide range of things that Jesus did.  The gospel of John is different in that it covers a smaller number of things but in more detail.   After these is the book of Acts which talks about the early church.

I think that these are the best starting point.  In my opinion, learning about Jesus and the church is a good foundation to start from to get familiar with the Bible.  If you learn how to read and study in these parts of the Bible, you will find other parts easier to read and study.  Some Christians would dive right into books and passages dealing with Christian doctrine and what to believe.  My preference is to start learning about Jesus and His followers and what they actually did.  Also, the gospels and Acts are narratives.  That is they relate stories and events that are easier to understand and study.  I think it is best to start practicing reading and studying these books first because they are among the easiest to learn how to read and study.

Point 3: Learn to use good reference materials

Christians have produced a lot of good books and other materials to help understand the Bible.  Most Christians who become serious students of the Bible use reference materials to be able to learn from other people.

One book on bible study that I'd highly recommend is "How to read the Bible for all it's worth" by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart.  https://www.christianbook.com/bible-worth-fourth-edition-special-edition/gordon-fee/9780310517825/pd/517825?event=ESRCG  I read this book in its first edition about 30 years ago when it first came out.  It provided insights and tools for me that I have used for decades.  It will provide you with a good base for learning how to look at the context of different books of the Bible.  It also discusses available reference materials.

Bible dictionaries contain a lot of information on different topics.  For example, if you started reading the Gospel of John, you could look up "John" or "John, Gospel of" or something like that.  You would then find an entry that gives information about that topic.  One thing to be aware of is that there are a large number of Bible dictionaries available of different levels of quality.  Some of the older ones are available free online.  However, note that many Bible dictionaries rely on information from archeology and other sources.  Many more archeological discoveries and similar work have expanded our knowledge of biblical history and culture over the years.  Also, newer ones often have a lot more pictures, maps, and other such things than the older ones.

There are also concordances.  These are reference books that contain all the verses where a particular word is found.  For example, look up the word "love" and it will list every verse in the Bible where "love" occurs.  In the days before computers, these were a unique resource.  Now, there are a number of programs, apps, and sites that will let you do the same thing.  One of their uses is to help look up particular passages if you remember a few words in it.

There are a lot of free online Bible study and reference materials.  The quality varies a lot!!!!!  The amount of bias varies a lot!!!!!   If you use online materials, I'd recommend trying to find multiple sources that are actually different from each other. 

 

Point 4:  Get started and realize that this is a lifelong process


Then, I'd say just start reading one of the gospels.  If you have a study Bible, read the footnotes.  If you have a Bible dictionary, look up information about people, places, and books of the Bible.  In practice, a good study Bible (like the NIV one I mentioned above) contains some of the information a Bible dictionary would contain.  When you finish that gospel, read the next gospel.  And when you finish the four gospels, read Acts.  This will provide you a solid base of knowing about Jesus and the church as well as practicing reading, studying, and starting to learn to answer questions on your own.

As you read something, rejoice in what you do understand.  If there is something you don't understand,  make an attempt to use a study Bible or Bible dictionary to get some answers.  If you find answers, cool!!!!  You are learning how to be a student of the Bible.  If you cannot find answers, don't sweat it and keep trying. :)  You'll find that over the months and years, it will slowly become a part of you.  Learning to read and understand the Bible is a lifelong task that is never finished.  You just make more and more progress and most importantly, you simply learn more and more about who God is.

Recognize that sometimes God's Spirit might bring particular verses to our attention (and this might have little to do with "study" per se).  Sometimes, a verse might convict us that we need to change something about ourselves.  Sometimes, a verse might jump out at us and give us encouragement.

Remember, this is about building a strong foundation for a lifetime of Bible reading and study.  Some people want to start into the "advanced" stuff right away.  Please resist this temptation.  Learn to read, meditate, look at reference materials, and most importantly, learn how to learn.  This is a learn to crawl before you walk before you run type of thing.  Rejoice at the accomplishments and hang in there.  At first, you'll have a lot more questions you need to just leave for another day.  But as you go on, you find that you'll have more and more answers.

Best wishes. :)  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Thanks guys. Gandalf was really clear as well.

Since I know that my eyes glaze over after too much reading, does anyone have a YouTube video to recommend. Sometimes a great deal can be seen and understood more readily this way, especially if the video producers include reference verses on-screen. Perhaps a semi-study series of videos would be helpful.

The caveat might be that there are a lot of crazy YouTube videos out there, so please select with care.

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Hi, 

 First; I join in prayer for God to guide you,  and for many that will be good companions in the faith of Jesus to come alongside  of you and share in  reading, and prayer, and study, of the Bible.

 To borrow  and paraphrase a guidance that I personally appreciate regarding study of God: To read without prayer is atheism. To pray without reading is presumption. To  read,  pray, and think,  is the key to having thoughtful conclusions that produce good result. 

 Also: Not knowing of your own understanding of your personal relationship with God I share that without having the Holy Spirit  indwelling you personally it is  not possible to fully grasp the word of God for it is words only, to those that do not yet  believe on Jesus and have the Spirit within them. The Bible reveals to us all why that is in the passages we call 1 Corinthians chapters 1 through 3. It is important to ask of God and it is necessary to receive the Holy Spirit in order to grasp the reality of God's word.

Have you learned of the Holy Spirit of God, and have you turned about from denying the power of God, and to accepting Jesus as  Lord God and savior yet?  Are you aware of the Holy Spirit? These are questions to ask of yourself, no need to answer them here. For that will tell you  where you stand today in your study, and will tell you of what your own  needs may be in order to begin to grasp the things that are of the meat of faith  of Jesus.

Most  all of us begin with what  is called milk of the faith of Jesus, that of what babes in the faith of Jesus may  grasp onto, before they begin any harder work of understanding their faith that is new to them, that which is called being born again, a new person.

In your own process I pray that you do get led to a Bible teaching local gathering of saints - a local church body, that you gain a mentoring series of saints that will come alongside of you  and encourage you, and that you will also find some joy in the sharing on places like Worthy Christian  Forums that have many diverse followers of Jesus our Lord and savior.

 

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4 hours ago, Justin Adams said:

Thanks guys. Gandalf was really clear as well.

Since I know that my eyes glaze over after too much reading, does anyone have a YouTube video to recommend. Sometimes a great deal can be seen and understood more readily this way, especially if the video producers include reference verses on-screen. Perhaps a semi-study series of videos would be helpful.

The caveat might be that there are a lot of crazy YouTube videos out there, so please select with care.

I'd stay away from You Tube at your point. I've developed cataracts so I can longer read much at all. If you go to Biblegateway.com they have about 6 audio Bibles you can use for free. I've been listening to the Dramatized NIV. I was always doubtful about dramatized Bibles until I listened to Acts this way. It made it really come alive. And in the OT they use different voices for different people. A very strong voice is used for God. When reading the OT, especially the prophets, it's so hard to be sure which words are the prophet himself, and which words are what God told him to say. The dramatized NIV makes this easier.

I'm like Gandolf, I've been reading the Bible some 40 years. None of us will ever know everything so don't expect to. There's always something new in the Bible you never noticed before.

Welcome to Worthy and don't push yourself too hard. You have, indeed, started a lifelong journey. I hope you enjoy it.

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