For me the most powerful part of the Bible is the Psalms. I can sit and read them endlessly, just pondering each line and letting it kind of open up in front of me. I lived in the Middle East for years, so all the references to the pastoral life in that part of the world are still very real for me. I guess I sit and read the Psalms and feel inspired. I can feel something of the attitude that the Psalms reflects, and when I do feel it I want more.

Much love,
Larry

thanks for the information and advice. I can agree that reading it at different points in your life to be true because theres so much information to pick up that it can be overwhelming at times. thats why I sit for a good half hour or even more and read each>

I have evolved into reading it as if he were trying to tell me something I really need to know to survive and feel loved. It has opened up a whole new perspective. I like psalms 91 and particularly Isa 61 frist few verses.

thanks for the advice. I think that we all have our own ways of reading and understanding what the>

for years i was trying to study my Bible in depth. but i just wasn't getting anything from it. my pastor caught wind of this and finally said to me, "you're searching fro God too hard. the christian walk should never be as hard as you are making it. you're searching so deep when in fact, all you have to do is scratch the surface. go home, and put away your dictionary, thesaurus, commentaries, parallel bibles, and just let God speak to you." now, he didn't mean don't ever touch them again, but i understood what he was saying. if you have the Spirit of God in your heart, then God will speak to you no matter what you read. sometimes we as humans try to play the Holy Spirit. this means not only in judging people, which is done more often than not, but also when it comes time to understand that which God is saying to us, we tend to make it elaborate, when in fact, it is more simple. now, i know everyone will believe different, but that is what i have found to be true in my life. for when i put all my study materials away and just read the Bible and let God do the talking, i started to learn more and advanced in my walk with God.

this is a great talk, i enjoy this. well, i'm off to church, we 're having a big service in honor of memorial day and we're honoring many veterans by name and i have a lot of music to play.(i'm the organist, for those who don't know me)


Much love to all of you,
Philip

I think terpprm (Philip) put it very well. In fact he beat me to what I was going to say. All the other advice you’ve received about helping to learn about the history and culture of the time is good advice and helpful, so is being open to have the Bible mean different things to you at different times (and I’m talking about the same passage of>

thank you for supporting me. it's good to read when someone agrees with you. sometimes you wonder if you'll offend someone or if you even make sense at times. lol. i just wanted to thank you for your kind words of support, and also say that i agree with what you added.

I read the"Life Recovery Bible" in the New Living Translation. It is easy to read and has excellent devotional. You are doing it right. It sounds like the Holy Spirit is already doing a work in you. God Bless You

hi bros, when i was in the trappist monastery we used to use the ancient method of lectio divina for sacred and>

hi, i wanted to add something else to my previous response to this question. while it is good to savor the word, in order to inform the understanding, it also helps to read a good commentary in tandem with the actual reading of the text itself. the commentary will help provide historic and cultural context, which will give a broader view of other influences impacting people who felt inspired to speak on god's behalf in their particular time and place. i use the collegeville commentary and find it immensely helpful. it suggests various alternative viewpoints on the interpretation of god's word, which is helpful and edifying. somewhere in the middle of it all you meet god's wisdom and grace for your life.

blessings,

ron