This page is dedicated to assisting you in your study of the Bible.

Please note that electronic Bible links are connected to various words throughout this article.

But before we get into any kind of discussion, let's talk about the different types of Bibles available for you to use. However, before I go any further into that, I should comment how these are my personal impressions meant to help you make a selection of what to use and when to use it.

Most people find the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible complicated to read. As a beginner, I found the King James Version super-potent and likened it to the Bible on steroids. I found the New King James Version less potent than the King James Version and much easier to read. I found the New International Version (NIV) so much easier to read that for years I used it as my primary Bible and I reserved the New King James Version Bible for church. It was the Bible often referenced by pastors. I've had beginning Bible readers ask me what is the best Bible to read. My answer to them was simple, I encourage you to read a Bible that you can really understand.

One of the reasons that people don't read their Bible is because they do not fully understand it. Reading something that you don't understand can be a 'labor of drudgery' instead of 'labor of love'. The important thing to do is to bring out your thirst for knowledge in the word of God that can only be achieved by you falling in love with the stories, or having new revelations about the scripture open up to you in such a way that it makes you want to know more.

Unfortunately, people often are using a Bible that someone has referred them to read as if their salvation was predicated on what type of Bible is read. That person probably never really explained or demonstrated to them the differences between the various versions of the Bible.

I had one beginner's Bible reader tell me that a pastor told them that the King James Version Bible is the only Bible for them to read. I've said to them that it is far more important that you get understanding from the reading of the Bible than to simply satisfy someone's preference.

Getting the story out of the passage is more important than the need to conform to someone's edict. After all, who is going to spend days and nights actually doing the reading and studying? Who is going to be held accountable for the reading, you or the other person? If you struggle to get through the passages of the sixty six Books of the Bible without gaining the meaning, you are missing the storyline and may be wasting your time.

The important point is that you gain understanding from the words that are on the pages of the books you read, so try using a Bible that you can gain an understanding of the stories in it.

If King James Version (KJV) doesn't work well for you then try the New King James Version (NKJV) or better still try the New International Version (NIV) or even the Amplified (AMP) Version. But understand that you should still refer to the KJV Bible as a study source since it was the first transliteration of the ancient records/documents.

As far as where you should start in your Bible study, I encourage you to begin in the New Testament portion of the Bible in the Book of John. Read that book and then move to the Book of Matthew. From there, move to the Book of Mark, then the Book of Luke, and then read the Book of John again. After that, go to the Book of Acts and slow your roll through those pages, reading for comprehension or understanding rather than quantity or volume.

From the Book of Acts, read on through the subsequent books in the New Testament, such as Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians etc. onto the Book of Revelations. Then go to the Old Testament and read starting in the Book of Genesis.

In your course of study, refer to the Lexicon in the Greek and Hebrew languages for the meaning of the words in the original King James Version Bible. Or, as an additional study aid, use the King James Version that is linked to the Strong's Concordance. [When visiting this website (biblestudytools.com), be sure to place a check in the box that's marked "Strongs Numbers" to activate the hyperlinks under the various words in the text.

Once you have located the Bible links online, become familiar with the different presentations of the word of God.]