Bored of reading the Bible

[-Luca]

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For a start, here's my summary of the Bible or Word of God.

0. God is Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omniscient. God has His throne in heaven.(EZE.1, REV.4) Satan and his demons rebelled against God.(ISA.14:12, EZE.28:17, REV.12:4-9)
....... God-in-heaven desired to replace the spiritual rebels with S'piritual humans. Earth is like a test-bed for this purpose.

1. On earth, all humans are born sinful/evil/satanic because of Adam's Original Sin = unclean/dirty/unholy = bound for hell when they die.(ROM.5:12)

2. So, no humans on earth can see the true face of the Holy God and live.(EXO.33:20, JOHN.1:18 & 5:37)

3. To save fallen humans, God-in-heaven endeavoured to come down to earth in lesser forms as the invisible Spirit or as the visible human(= Angel of God or Jesus Christ). (JOHN.8:58/EXO.3:14, JOHN.1:1 & 14, 1TIM.3:16, 2COR.3:17, ISA.9:6)
....... As the Spirit, God-in-heaven gave His Law to Moses and the Jews, in order to curb humans' inborn tendency to commit sins/evil-deeds/satanic-deeds.(DEUT.28)
....... As Jesus Christ, God-in-heaven gave the apostles and Christians the sacrificial Lamb of God on the Cross(JOHN.1:29), in order to save them from hell when they die = the free gift of salvation or the kingdom of heaven through faith.(JOHN.3:16, MATT.4:17, GAL.2:16)
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A good analogy of our One and Only God is our one and only sun.
... God-the-Father-in-heaven sends His invisible Spirit and His visible Son-Jesus to earth to sustain immortal life = the sun-in-outer-space sends her invisible warmth/heat and her visible light to earth to sustain mortal life.
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The Bible or Word of God can be broken down into 2 parts, the Old and New Testaments/Covenants, ie,

(i) if you wanna have a good n long life on earth, you need to keep the Law/Word of God.(DEUT.28, MATT.19:21, ACTS.15:24-29, cf; 1COR.5:1-5 & 11:30, 1JOHN.5:16-19),

(ii) if you wanna go to heaven when you die, you need to be saved from hell by Jesus the Christ/Messiah/Savior.(MATT.5:27-30, ROM.5:12, LEV.17:11, HEB.9:22, JOHN.3:16, 1COR.6:9-11, REV.22:12-15)

Christians should aim to achieve both, ie to gain both blessings from God, eg MATT.19:23.
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Bc of our inherited Adam's Original Sin, we have the dual problems of INVOLUNTARY satanic/evil/sinful thoughts, eg immoral lust, hate, anger, greed, selfishness, jealousy, fear/worries, doubts, etc, ...and VOLUNTARY satanic/evil/sinful deeds, eg blasphemy, idolatry, murder, adultery/fornication/rape, stealing, lying/cheating/defrauding, etc.
....... The former resulted in being cursed/sent to hell when we die(GEN.3:14-16) and the latter resulted in being cursed by God with a sad and short life on earth. God's Law solved the latter and God's Son solved the former.
....... Usually, before someone committed murder, he/she had originally harbored hate or greed or lust or jealousy or etc in his/her heart and mind.(source is spiritually from Satan - JOHN.8:44, MATT.16:23 & 23:27, MARK.7:21, 1JOHN.3:8)) IOW, all humans are born satanic/evil/sinful/unclean, from their hearts to their feet.
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At ACTS.15:24-29, God/Jesus requires Gentile Christians to begin their born-again lives of the Spirit by keeping 4 easy or non-burdensome laws of Moses, ie avoid eating blood, strangled animals, foods sacrificed to idols and sexual immorality = minimum legal requirement. They r then given time to learn to gradually keep the other laws of Moses which are not a burden, esp morality laws, eg the Ten Commandments at EXODUS.20, LEVITICUS.10:9, DEUTERONOMY.18:9-14, etc.
....... In comparison, Jewish Christians are required by God/Jesus to continue to keep Moses Law, as many as possible, because it is not a burden to them.
....... Eg, Gentile Christians should still avoid homosexuality and continue to eat non-kosher foods because the former is not a burden but the latter is a burden(ie it's a burden for them to keep the food laws).
... Faith in God's Son, Jesus = faith in God's Word/Law/commandments because JOHN.1:1 says the Son is the Word and is also God.

We need to properly differentiate between involuntary satanic/evil/sinful thoughts and voluntary sins/evil deeds, and between involuntary or inborn Gentile and Jewish Christians.

Analogy about involuntary evil/satanic thoughts and voluntary evil-deeds/sins - black crows often squawks noisily over our heads but we should not let them build their dirty nests on our heads.

Hello, this is really great and useful so thank you! Will be taking some notes off of these!

 

[-Luca]

Love it. So many plans to choose from. I use the M'Cheyne one year plan or Canonical one year plan. The former will take you through the OT once and NT and Psalms twice a year. The latter the Bible once in a year.

Love that you can read this app in multiple languages and has just about every English Bible translation including the Orthodox Jewish Bible and Complete Jewish Bible.

Yes, there are so many! When I find a plan though I usually go into one of the categories like Faith or lust or joy. Which ones are the part of? All does those plans encircle every one of those categories?

 

[redleghunter]

I think that I tried a few of those from the Bible app, but I am not currently on one. I really need to get a physical Bible myself, I only have access to it online.

As mentioned above the You Version Bible App is very good. It has reading plans, you can highlight and bookmark passages and it saves them to your profile.

It has multiple English language translations if the KJV is causing some hurdles. Three great modern English translations which are literal word for word translations are the NKJV, WEB and NASB. For a more thought for thought version the CSB is very good .

Yes get a physical hard copy Bible as well. If you have an Amazon account there are always sales going on and if a Prime member shipping is free. Christianbooks.com is also a good site to buy a Bible. One of my favorites was John MacArthurs NKJV or NASB study Bible. Good charts and maps and footnotes. A good Bible to bring to church.

Also I know my church hands out Bibles free. You might want to check your church first.

 

[redleghunter]

Yes, there are so many! When I find a plan though I usually go into one of the categories like Faith or lust or joy. Which ones are the part of? All does those plans encircle every one of those categories?

I would recommend at first to choose the smaller plans without a specific topic. For example Easter is coming up choose the Gospel of Luke or Matthew reading plan.

Then start with some of the NT epistle plans.

There's a 12 day Gospel of Luke plan under Whole Bible then partial.

 

[-Luca]

As mentioned above the You Version Bible App is very good. It has reading plans, you can highlight and bookmark passages and it saves them to your profile.

It has multiple English language translations if the KJV is causing some hurdles. Three great modern English translations which are literal word for word translations are the NKJV, WEB and NASB. For a more thought for thought version the CSB is very good .

Yes get a physical hard copy Bible as well. If you have an Amazon account there are always sales going on and if a Prime member shipping is free. Christianbooks.com is also a good site to buy a Bible. One of my favorites was John MacArthurs NKJV or NASB study Bible. Good charts and maps and footnotes. A good Bible to bring to church.

Also I know my church hands out Bibles free. You might want to check your church first.

Yeah I have a lot of highlights on that app! What do you think of the NIV?

 

[Sketcher]

What books do you normally hit most often?

One day, I noticed that I was skipping over the final remarks in all the Letters. So I made it a point to read them all. It was interesting. Little exercises like that can help you out.

 

[-Luca]

What books do you normally hit most often?

One day, I noticed that I was skipping over the final remarks in all the Letters. So I made it a point to read them all. It was interesting. Little exercises like that can help you out.

I just recently finished reading all of Mark, and then I went to John but it was mostly the same thing so I skipped 90% of it. Just listened to proverbs. Whenever I read the Bible it is usually very random but I never read OT and that's a fact

 

[redleghunter]

Yeah I have a lot of highlights on that app! What do you think of the NIV?

It's a good modern English version. It is the more thought for thought with the translators interpretation in some places taking precedence.

I'm more the word for word literal versions like the KJV, NKJV, NASB and ESV. But go get you going on reading the NIV or CSB are good. If you turn into a theologian then the LEB is the most mechanical word for word literal translation produced by the egg heads at LOGOS software.

 

[Sketcher]

I just recently finished reading all of Mark, and then I went to John but it was mostly the same thing so I skipped 90% of it. Just listened to proverbs. Whenever I read the Bible it is usually very random but I never read OT and that's a fact

John is very different from Mark, they both have different theological emphases. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are in a category called Synoptic Gospels, but John is a Gospel of its own category.

Have you read Romans or Ephesians yet?

 

[-Luca]

It's a good modern English version. It is the more thought for thought with the translators interpretation in some places taking precedence.

I'm more the word for word literal versions like the KJV, NKJV, NASB and ESV. But go get you going on reading the NIV or CSB are good. If you turn into a theologian then the LEB is the most mechanical word for word literal translation produced by the egg heads at LOGOS software.

I really like the NIV! Most people don't though and say to read KJV but I just don't understand it! I also feel like everyone always judges me for reading it, at church or if I meet a fellow Christian. They always ask which Bible I read and I always feel ashamed and embarrassed to say.

Do you read the LEB?

 

[-Luca]

John is very different from Mark, they both have different theological emphases. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are in a category called Synoptic Gospels, but John is a Gospel of its own category.

Have you read Romans or Ephesians yet?

Oh really? I did not really notice it because when I read it, it felt like everything was the same except for the parables at the end they were great! Oh thank you I never knew that.

 

[redleghunter]

I just recently finished reading all of Mark, and then I went to John but it was mostly the same thing so I skipped 90% of it. Just listened to proverbs. Whenever I read the Bible it is usually very random but I never read OT and that's a fact

Been there. Like school and sports we have to establish a discipline in our daily lives. Start out small and work your way up.

As I explained earlier, reading the Bible is much different than studying the Bible. For example in my personal daily reading my one year plan takes me through 4-5 chapters of the Bible a day. However, my small group Bible study class weekly covers 3-5 verses a week. We really dig deep. We've been in Ephesians since last summer.

The hare and tortoise approach.

 

[-Luca]

Been there. Like school and sports we have to establish a discipline in our daily lives. Start out small and work your way up.

As I explained earlier, reading the Bible is much different than studying the Bible. For example in my personal daily reading my one year plan takes me through 4-5 chapters of the Bible a day. However, my small group Bible study class weekly covers 3-5 verses a week. We really dig deep. We've been in Ephesians since last summer.

The hare and tortoise approach.

Oh no, I feel really bad now. I finish a book in a day or two, is this bad? But I just don't understand, everyone is saying to study the word but what does this even mean? Should I sort of meditate after I read a passage?

 

[redleghunter]

I really like the NIV! Most people don't though and say to read KJV but I just don't understand it! I also feel like everyone always judges me for reading it, at church or if I meet a fellow Christian. They always ask which Bible I read and I always feel ashamed and embarrassed to say.

Do you read the LEB?

IMHO the NIV is just fine as you are familiar with it and like it. My first adult Bible was a paraphrase version when I was 10 years old. My Hippy Christian Aunt gave it to me.

It was perfect for my age group. It was called "The Way" Bible. No longer in print but very similar to the New Living Translation (NLT) published today. I use the NLT for home Bible study with my 13 year old son.

I only use the LEB to check out how they translated difficult passages with theological implications. Then go to the lexicon. However this is for deep study and not general reading.

 

[redleghunter]

Oh no, I feel really bad now. I finish a book in a day or two, is this bad? But I just don't understand, everyone is saying to study the word but what does this even mean? Should I sort of meditate after I read a passage?

I posted up thread a link to a blank Bible study guide. It is very similar to the men's Bible study format my church uses. Try it out. You may not be able to answer all the questions or they may not apply for some passages. But it establishes a structure. Here it is:

Blank Bible Study Worksheet.docx

 

[-Luca]

IMHO the NIV is just fine as you are familiar with it and like it. My first adult Bible was a paraphrase version when I was 10 years old. My Hippy Christian Aunt gave it to me.

It was perfect for my age group. It was called "The Way" Bible. No longer in print but very similar to the New Living Translation (NLT) published today. I use the NLT for home Bible study with my 13 year old son.

I only use the LEB to check out how they translated difficult passages with theological implications. Then go to the lexicon. However this is for deep study and not general reading.

I just read a bit and it definitely looks similar to the NIV. Which version do you read?

 

[redleghunter]

I just read a bit and it definitely looks similar to the NIV. Which version do you read?

I use the NASB for daily reading. For Bible study at church they use the ESV so I bought the ESV study Bible. That Bible is so thick it could stop a .50 cal bullet.

I still use the MacArthur NKJV study Bible for personal Bible study as I find his footnote commentary very helpful to cross reference verses. He also has wonderful introductions to each Bible book giving the history and authorship of the book. And he points out the portions of the book which present theological difficulties. Meaning things we Christians love to debate here on CF.

 

[redleghunter]

I just read a bit and it definitely looks similar to the NIV.

The NLT looked similar to the NIV? It could for clarity of modern English. However the NLT might be more "free" on linking concepts to facilitate flow.

When reading Romans 3-8 in the NLT with my son I found out I had little to explain to him. It was very clear. It's the version I hand out to the homeless when handing them food and water. I throw in a few Bible tracts too.

 

[DominicBaptiste]

Why don't you try weekly or monthly.

 

[redleghunter]

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