[Deleted comment to cut down on irrelevant chatter...]
First you have to understand the difference between a paraphrase and a translation.
A true translation is a word-for-word translation. But because of language, culture, and time differences, you can NEVER get an exact translation from one language to another, so there is a HUGE debate over how "accurate" to translate a text.
Such as the common phrase of "raining cats and dogs". That idiom translated in, say, Chinese would lose all meaning. They would think cats and dogs were falling from the sky literally. In the same vein, the equivalent heavy rainfall phrase in one African language translated to English literally comes out to "it's raining old women with clubs".
I'm sure you can see the problem here.
The more literally accurate a translation is, the more you have to understand the context in which it was written.
On the other spectrum are paraphrases. Paraphrases are "dynamic equivalents" of a text--that is the text is re-worded so that the meaning is conveyed and understood easier. The problem with doing this is that you have to accept one single interpretation of what the translator is writing for that text, and as you're probably aware, not everyone agrees with all interpretations of the Bible. Basically, when you read a paraphrase, you are reading another person's interpretation of the Bible.
If you weren't aware already, The Message is a paraphrase.
Paraphrases are fine for casual reading. But use them as a supplement to a real translation, which should be your primary Bible. If you're going to engage in serious Bible Study, you need a true translation (there are debates about that too), so you can read the Scriptures and let the Holy Spirit teach you it's meaning instead of someone else interpreting for you.
Jesus doesn't like people who know greek and hebrew.
