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| Tweet Topic Started: June 17, 2012, 12:36 am (1,613 Views) | |
| kia | June 17, 2012, 12:36 am Post #1 |
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Hi all. I grew up in a Christian home, my mother was a baptist, my father a catholic. I am 39. I always had believed in God, though I never really liked going to church. And though I believed, I only talked to God, usually, whenever something went wrong in my life and I was desperate! And then when I did pray, I never got what I prayed for which was usually help out of my desperate situation. I still believed though. One day, out of the blue, I heard God. I did not hear an audible voice, just an inner thought, which was not my own. It was higher in authority and I knew it was God. God was disciplining me, and used bible verses to do it. I could not stop reading the bible after that. I felt i was being led to read it. I would also pray and God would give me verses by name and number. I never would know what they would be until I read them. But to me, the bible was one of God's ways of communicating with me. So God is real. I also experienced many miracles such as healing of myself, family, and others, even strangers I never knew through prayer. The thing is, I have never read the bible from beginning to end. People talk about stories in the bible, and I do not know the stories. I only know the bible as it says - here a little, there a little. I memorized, it seems, a lot of verses, and I know them well, but mainly from the NT. I would like to take the time to go through it, beginning to end, perhaps with a journal and to take notes but, I cant motivate myself to do it. Actually, since going on the net and posting on forums, I have found it has taken me away from reading the bible. So I was wondering anyway, am I so alone with not knowing so much about the bible? It seems everyone knows everything, except me. kia. |
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| BHIles | June 18, 2012, 4:41 pm Post #2 |
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There is an old saying The Bible will keep you from sin and sin will keep you from the Bible. Don't let any seemingly good thing take you from the love letter God has written to you. The more you read it the more you will want to read it. Do not read it as a text book in your devotional walk. Read it as you would a love letter. Read it until something stirs in your heart. It is not a matter of how many versus you can get through. Digest and meditate on what you are reading. The more you read you will also begin to understand the less you know because you will understand the Scripture has truths that are so deep and so rich in revealing a perfect God that we read the scriptures again and again and never scratch the surface of all that they have for us. The reason is because they are alive. And if you are a believer in Jesus Christ and have placed your faith in Him as your only way of salvation you were given the Holy Spirit to teach you the scriptures as you read. He is the one who opens your eyes and teaches your spirit things way beyond comprehension of mortal man. But before you start anything, before you know anything, you must be sure that you are a born-again child of God. Growing up christian does not make you a christian. Believing in God and Jesus does not make one born again. There must be a time when you realized that you were a sinner, on your way to hell and there was nothing you could do to save yourself. Realizing the state you are/were in you repented of your sinful state and you placed your belief on Jesus Christ as your saviour and asked Jesus Christ to save you, and in that and that alone can you be born again, born of God. Here is a thread that explains it all. This may be redundant for you and forgive me if it is, but given your background and the words you wrote about growing up in a christian home it never hurts to make sure that everyone understands what the true Gospel of Christ is. Believe me no offense is intended but I would feel terrible if you went to the judgement without this matter cleared up and I failed to give you a clear presentation of what it means to be a Christian. And then why that is important in reading the Bible. 1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Edited by BHIles, June 18, 2012, 4:58 pm.
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| kia | June 19, 2012, 2:37 am Post #3 |
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Hi BHlles. I clicked on the link, and it just took me to login again and then to the forum index page? Thanks for your reply. You said:
That is the thing. I was led to read Scripture through the Holy Spirit. (I am a follower of Jesus Christ). I could not put the Bible down. I was hungry for all it said. It meant so much to me. But, lately, I do not feel the same motivation to read it. When I say lately, I mean, the past year, approximately, maybe longer. It seems I spend so much time on-line, on Christian forums, and I will quote scripture using an on-line bible, copy and pasted. But, apart from that, I have no motivation to pick up my bible and read, like I used to feel. And theres so many stories in the bible that I realize I have not read, nor know nothing about. The last forum I went on...people argued, and fought over scripture, and formed into groups, and, there were a few nasty people on there, and I think it sort of ruined something for me. And for others too. 'Remind them of this, and charge them before the Lord to avoid disputing about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers.' (2nd Tim.2.14). Edited by kia, June 19, 2012, 3:05 am.
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| Kitnmama | June 19, 2012, 2:34 pm Post #4 |
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Hi Kia, I grew up with unbelieving parents...my mother was an agnostic and my dad athiest....both grew up in Catholic church/schools and didn't want anything to do with Christianity....they never once took me to church and we literally did not have a bible in our home. Once I got saved in my twenties, I felt a little silly that I didn't know any of the bible "stories" of the Old Testament. Daniel and the Lion's Den and all of this stuff people take for granted that they know, and assume that we all grew up hearing. I went out and purchased "The Golden Children's Bible".... tells the major stories, in prose, with pictures. It was an enjoyable crash course in all I missed out on as a child. Believe it or not, I recognized the Lord's presence with me and His illumination of His word, with depth and power,to me through this Children's Bible, just as much as when I read my regular bibles. I still pull it out once in a while whenever I am discouraged or exhausted and just need to read something simple. I'm sure you know a lot more than I did and want something more advanced than this, I'm just encouraging you to do whatever it takes to help motivate you and enjoy learning what you want to learn.
Edited by Kitnmama, June 19, 2012, 2:40 pm.
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| kia | June 19, 2012, 4:49 pm Post #5 |
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Kitnmama, that is a great idea, thank you. Another idea I had was to get the stories on DVD, and listen to them. I prayed last night, regarding this. I asked that I be shown scripture again, like I used to. (And also asked for forgiveness of my sins, the sins I know, even things I do not realize I am doing). I was given a verse and looked it up. It was 1st John 4:11. And it answered it for me. And as I was reading it, it suddenly dawned on me, why it took me so long to read scripture, and how I used to do it. I used to read SLOWLY. I never rushed through it. I took in every word. So I thank God for showing me this. The verses said: [11] And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. [12] He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not life. [13] I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. [14] And this is the confidence which we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. [15] And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him. [16] If any one sees his brother committing what is not a mortal sin, he will ask, and God will give him life for those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin which is mortal; I do not say that one is to pray for that. [17] All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin which is not mortal. [18] We know that any one born of God does not sin, but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. [19] We know that we are of God, and the whole world is in the power of the evil one. [20] And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, to know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. [21] Little children, keep yourselves from idols. |
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| kia | June 19, 2012, 4:55 pm Post #6 |
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Oh and praise God for your testimony kitnmama. |
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| Kitnmama | June 20, 2012, 11:23 am Post #7 |
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I tend to read slowly also, and like to stop and think about what I'm reading....maybe it's because I have a short attention span....this is why I've never been able to do finish one of those "read the bible in a year" schedules. I had to read so quickly, I wasn't getting much out of it and wasn't enjoying it. Became a burden, trying to read a certain amount just to stay on schedule. I always quit somewhere in 1 or 2 Chronicles. haha
Edited by Kitnmama, June 20, 2012, 11:23 am.
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| kia | June 20, 2012, 8:35 pm Post #8 |
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I know how you feel kitnmama :) |
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| kia | June 20, 2012, 8:39 pm Post #9 |
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God's time is not our time. |
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| metroames | June 23, 2012, 6:55 pm Post #10 |
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My pastor has put together a daily Bible reading schedule along with commentary. He is very good about context and taking in the whole picture. If you have trouble reading, he offers a pod cast for every day where he reads it to you in your choice of the KJV or the NKJV: http://www.bibletrack.org/ |
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| kia | June 24, 2012, 10:45 pm Post #11 |
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Thanks for that,Metroames I'll check it out. |
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