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[EKnight]

I am here on the forum daily and I read most of the posts.  I get a feeling that most posters are formerly of "bible" churches.  I say this because I hear people talking about all these scriptures that they suddenly understand, most of which I NEVER heard.  Catholics don't really teach bible studies.  Therefore, I feel I am somewhat behind the rest of you in my understanding of scriptures. 

I really want to get up to speed but I don't know where to begin.  What I mean is, I don't want to hear these scriptures for the first time in Ray's teachings.  However, thinking about reading the bible from start to finish is overwhelming, not to mention I don't have good reading comprehension to begin with so whatever I read will be forgotten soon after.  Are there particular books of the bible that are more beneficiary than others that I should work on?

Also, a lot of times replies to posts are all bible verses, how do you all know them or how do you access them quickly?  Sometimes I don't even know if it's OT or NT.  And in both, I don't know the order of the books so I always have to leaf through looking for them. 

Whatever help you can give would be appreciated.

So much for 12 years of Catholic school 

Eileen

[rjsurfs]

Hi Eileen,

Find Kat's post on e-Sword.

I doubt many of us here if any knew the scriptures when we came out of the church of man.  What we knew we didn't understand... what we understood was probably wrong.

I didn't join this forum for at least a year into studying Ray... but honestly I never saw the link for the longest.  I read the forum long before I posted.

All I can say is study.... and they some more.  You will be amazed at how fast you start retaining the scripture.

Pray for understanding and a love for the truth.

Bobby

[rjsurfs]

http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,4470.0.html

[EKnight]

I don't use Windows, so I don't think I can get e-sword 

[rk12201960]

Hi Eileen,
Yes I can help.
Learn whatever is on Rays site. God took you here and He already knew about the scripture thing, so don't be to hard on yourself because God sees something in you that almost all people don't have.
Don't worry if you don't know today tomorrow you will.

Peace
Randy

PS I live in upstate NY.

[rjsurfs]

Hi Eileen,

Mac?

E-Sword has an internet version:
http://live.e-sword.net/

I've never used it so I can't say how good it is.

I have many, many books... but honestly about the only thing I use is a

1.  King James with Strong's numbers
2.  Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (Greek and Hebrew) w/ dictionary as well is nice.
3.  I also refer to the Concordant Version or even sometimes a random paraphrase just to jog my brain.

That's it.  All of the above is on the internet as well.

Bobby

[KristaD]

Hi Elileen, I have hardly been to church at all and I have not read the entire bible as of yet. I read when and what God leads me to and really try to get into it and understand what it says, that's far more important than trying to read it all. You will also remember things better if you get what it's saying. I use my strong's concordance when I feel that there is more too a word than what it says and often see a whole different meaning that lines up more with the rest of the scriptures. I use biblegateway.com when I remember a scripture partially that I want to quote, I certainly do NOT have them memorized. If you want some real good meat I suggest Ecclesiastes, Galatians, Hebrews and both Corinthians. HTH!! 

[EKnight]

Thanks Krista.  I will start there.

Bobby-yes, MAC (and I love it).

Randy-Upstate?  Hmm I consider myself upstate but there is always up upstate.  I am about 55 mi NW of the city.

Eileen

[EKnight]

Oh thanks Bobby, I registered, now I can maybe sneak a peek while at work 

Eileen

[rk12201960]

I'm up by Albany.
Not to faar from that other country. 

Randy

[Kat]

Hi Eileen,

Well we did study the Bible quite a bit when I was in Worldwide Church of God.  Now I am familiar with so many Scriptures and that helps a lot.

I just don't think there are any short cuts, it is going to take a lot of reading and study.  I don't have good reading comprehension either, but believe me if you read it enough you will start to remember it.  But I think more than remembering chapter and verse, you need to learn the stories, then you will remember things that way.  Get a Bible translation that is easy for you to read, I like the New King James, the headings let you know what's coming up.  Something like The Good News Bible is easy to read and if you go through chapters at a time, you can get content, this way you can understand the story flow.
When Studying Ray's papers pay close attention to the Scriptures, he uses a lot of them.  When looking at a single Scripture that you can't figure out, look it up and read the verses before and after it, to get the content, sometimes I read several chapters. 
Also when studying a Scripture or passage look up the cross-references from the commentaries, looking up other Scriptures will give you more on the subject. 
Concordances, dictionaries and other helps, offered at these online Bible sites all help in your study.

Hope this is helpful 

mercy, peace and love
Kat

[EKnight]

Hi Kat,

Funny you should mention stories because another problem I am facing is like history.  Ray's teachings seem to involve a lot of bible history, or knowing the ways of that time period.  History, ugh, not my forte.

I have been doing what you mentioned--->taking a verse and reading before and after it.  That is helping.  And now I have e-sword live, which Bobby gave me the link to, that is helping as well.

Rather than develop a whole new topic for post, I will ask another question of you here; who is Paul referring to in Cor. when he speaks of Apollos??

Thanks,
Eileen

[Kat]

Yes that E-Sword Live was new to me that should be a great help.  I use the search function on E-Sword and study all kinds of topics.

I found this in Easton's Bible dictionary.

Apollos
A Jew “born at Alexandria,” a man well versed in the Scriptures and eloquent (Act_18:24; R.V., “learned”). He came to Ephesus (about A.D. 49), where he spake “boldly” in the synagogue (Act_18:26), although he did not know as yet that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. Aquila and Priscilla instructed him more perfectly in “the way of God”, i.e., in the knowledge of Christ. He then proceeded to Corinth, where he met Paul (Act_18:27; Act_19:1). He was there very useful in watering the good seed Paul had sown (1Co_1:12), and in gaining many to Christ. His disciples were much attached to him (1Co_3:4-7, 1Co_3:22). He was with Paul at Ephesus when he wrote the First Epistle to the Corinthians; and Paul makes kindly reference to him in his letter to Titus (Tit_3:13). Some have supposed, although without sufficient ground, that he was the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews.
-----------------------------------------------------

mercy, peace and love
Kat

[rjsurfs]

Hi Kat,

You said:

Well we did study the Bible quite a bit when I was in Worldwide Church of God.  Now I am familiar with so many Scriptures and that helps a lot.

I am glad you pointed that out... I guess I did study more than I usually think about or realize as well.  I grew up in a very religious home which meant church at least twice on Sunday and then every Wednesday night.  My parents sent me to a private Christian school growing up... so I had an hour of Bible Study each day and a thirty minute worship service each day... at school. 

I know I had read the Bible many times through... funny thing though and I mentioned this today with a friend... is how often now I may read the scripture and think, "how did that get in there?"... so many of the verses regarding the salvation of all, many and the few, etc... I just read over.  If you think about it... so many of the verses we study now are the very ones that the church will just skip over quickly.

Good point though because I have known many from the WCG and they usually are quite familiar with the scriptures.

Bobby

[Samson]

Hi Eileen,

Find Kat's post on e-Sword.

I doubt many of us here if any knew the scriptures when we came out of the church of man.  What we knew we didn't understand... what we understood was probably wrong.

I didn't join this forum for at least a year into studying Ray... but honestly I never saw the link for the longest.  I read the forum long before I posted.

All I can say is study.... and they some more.  You will be amazed at how fast you start retaining the scripture.

Pray for understanding and a love for the truth.

Bobby

Hello Eileen,

                  Bobby Proctor makes some good points and that's why I brought his quotes with my Post. As Yoda tells Luke SkyWalker in The Empire Strikes Back; " You must unlearn, what you have learned". This doesn't apply to everything, but is somewhat true in my case, I was a Jehovah's Witness for twenty years and they had an interpretation and answer for every Scripture. One good thing about them, they trained me to be good at research, when using my Bible. A bible with good foot notes will show you how a verse can be rendered differently, also their Translation of the Bible removes those spurious passages that weren't in the best and oldest Manuscripts, the ones that are listed and compiled by Kat at our Forum Index. Also a good concordance that's built into your Bible helps, because it will show you other Scriptures that are related to the Scripture and passage your reading. If your reading the New Testament, it will show you from what Hebrew Scripture that the New Testament writer is quoting from. Most of the New Testament Scriptures are a quotation of the Old or alluding to the Old. An example of that is at Romans. 10:13 where it says, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be Saved"; that's quoting Joel.2:32. If the concordance is built right into the translation your using, you'll see a little letter that corresponds with the Scripture your reading, showing you where the writer quoting from and/or other Scriptures that may relate to that Scripture. I can't think of anything else at this time, surely another member will give you some other pointers.

                                                     Your Brother, Samson.

[Dave in Tenn]

Twelve years of Catholic school didn't prepare you for this?  Shame on the nuns.   

Bobby nailed it well.  If any of our churches didn't believe a particular doctrine, we either just never heard about it or tried to endure convoluted 'explanations'.  The 'good ones' then had to endure the confusion that comes from believing them.

My practical advice is to pick up a translation that is fairly easy to read.  I don't have it any more, but I used to like the New International Version just for reading.  Ray says that the King James version is a good translation with important exceptions, but you have to contend not only with understanding the 'concepts' being written about, but the arcane English.  It's beautiful at times (the language) but English itself has changed since 1611 and that can result in misunderstanding even when the translation is good.

I set aside a weekend when I was in my late teens and was able to read the New Testament (except Revelation) during that time, reading intensely like I was reading a novel.  I try to read without thought to chapter and verse (it wasn't written that way originally anyway) so I'm not much good at remembering passages.  So I agree that getting an overview and just a basic understanding of what's in there is a great first step.

Too much of what I DID know is forgotten in a haze.  I need to join with you and get back into the Book more.   

 

[Roy Monis]

Dear Eileen

Shake on it sister, I too was raised a Catholic. From an infant of 4 to 6 in a Catholic St Mary's convent; 7-16 Catholic Christian Brothers College leaving at Intermediate Science. Rosary, Stations of the Cross, Catechisim, confession and kissing the stone feet of Mary's statue. No Bible teaching, in fact, didn't know such existed. I decided to let God do His bit and leave me to do mine, then we wouldn't get in each others way.

Does that bring back nightmare memories? I'm so sorry to have upset you but we have a starting point in common and that's good.

I thought all I needed to do was learn the ten commandments and I'd go to heaven, but why the thick unreadable book? A friend of ours a very good and regular church goer, I thought, should know and possibly help. To my utter surprise she hadn't a clue. So much for Babylon, all supposed Christians but like my friend clueless.

After a short spell with Armstrong where I learned how to find my way round the Bible, I joined the Pentecostal movement and fell from the frying pan into the fire, but that's the way God teaches, it's not our ways. But to be fair I did learn how to read and follow the Bible not that any of my teachers did. They just obeyed what they were taught.

Now I am here and learning twice as fast and for a change the proper stuff right from the horses mouth as it were, not in any way being disrespectful to Ray or the Scriptures. And you Eileen have the advantage over me in that you have a teacher of the real stuff for a starter. Ray teaches very plainly, just download his paper on the "Twelve God-Given Truths To Understanding God's Word" and truly digest it. You can't go wrong it's easy to follow but not so easy to digest and retain. You'll have to read and re-read several times and slowly, whilst at the same time taking his advice to make sure you pay attention to the words. That is very important.

I never knew one hundredth part of what I know now, in fact, I'm still unloading a lot of the Babylonian garbage that has contaminated my mind. I know how you feel a lot of members here unload a lot of Scriptures without due consideration for inexperienced new comers like you and I, which is neither very helpful nor edifying. I have had to face the same and I've been blunt about it on this site and it has unintentionally offended quite a few. But the truth always hurts and truthfulness is always the best policy. I empathize with you in your situation.

I am only a newbie here like yourself so you are not on your own.

God bless you sister in our joint walk in Christ. 

Love in Christ Jesus.

Roy UK