Understanding Scriptures - First Entry

This is my first entry. I'm planning on writing once a week for now.

I love reading. I have always like reading a little bit of (almost) everything. There was a time, when I was a teenager, that when it came to the scriptures, I was always intimidated by them. The books seemed too thick, the pages too thin and the print too small. They literally overwhelmed me. Especially “The Old Testament.” Genesis was okay, it could hold up my interest somewhat, but the following four books (Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy), man, they‘d put me to sleep every time. Somehow my brain would go blank immediately after I’d read one of their chapters . I’d tried to read them on many occasions, but to no avail. Even after my mission I had a hard time-- I could never get through them without getting bored or dead brained. My brain would not function-- It would literally shut down to the point that I couldn’t even remember the first word I’d read. There are other books in the Old Testament (OT) that have the same kind of effect in my brain. True, there are parts of the books that were interesting and that I could understand, but over all—they would lose me mentally. Uuughh. It was just easier to avoid reading it sequentially. It was safer to read only the stories that everyone new, such as: Noah’s Ark. Or Joseph of Egypt. Or Moses (just the part of his birth ‘til the part where he leads the Israelites out of Egypt, like in the movie. Or Jonas and The whale... But even then it could get confusing reading them chapter by chapter. It was actually better when someone else would tell the stories.

After many years of reading the “other” scriptures such as: The New testament (NT), The Book of Mormon (BOM), The Doctrine and Covenants (D&C) and the Pearl of Great Price (PGP), which I love and feel fairly comfortable with them. I finally decided to tackle reading the Old Testament once again. To my wonderful surprise, I am truly enjoying reading this intimidating, overwhelming and scary book this time around. I can now, honestly say that I love reading “all” of the scriptures… thus far. I still haven’t finish reading the Old Testament. Reading the “other” scriptures has prepared me to know how to read what I am now reading. I’ve read the scriptures (other than the Old Testament) many times, and every time I’ve read them I’ve never been bored. I’ve always learned something new,-- well, not always new, but, some things seen from a new perspective.

The scriptures are not necessarily a mystery. They are simply sacred. Prayer is crucial. ALWAYS pray for the Spirit to help you understand them. I don’t consider myself a scripture expert, but I feel I have a good grasp on them . I won’t pretend that I understand them perfectly, but I understand them for my personal life. The beauty of the scriptures is that it has an over all instructions and meaning for all of us--, but it also has a personal, and individual one for each and everyone. That’s what makes them unique and hard to interpret one way. There is the history, the symbolism, and the teachings that can be interpreted, depending on how much knowledge we have of that period of time…. Then, there is the interpretation of the Spirit. AAhh, these two ways go hand in hand: we need both for a clearer understanding of them. They are both essential to understanding those periods of time. The Interpretation of the Spirit also tells us how these sacred writings can apply in our daily lives; how our Heavenly Father can actually speak to us through them; He can also give us visions, a sense of feeling of what the people back then were truly like, and so forth…. Reading with the Spirit, I’ve learned to be more open minded. Why? Because the Lord doesn’t think or see things the way we think and see them. His thoughts are way high above our mental capacity. The Spirit is our interpreter of His thoughts. Through him, we can see glimpses of what Our Heavenly Father wants us to see through his eyes and what he wants us to know and understand.

I love growing older. I never thought I would ever, ever say that. But I do, I truly love growing older because most of the years of my past has been an opportunity to learn, to experience the things that I now know and understand, that without that time… I wouldn’t know and understand. There is a difference between Knowing and understanding. We can know of many things through reading, seen, people telling us about it etc… But to understand, to understand even a little, we must experience it or experience something similar or close to it. We know things in our minds, but we understand them with our hearts. Our mind is logical. Our heart is emotional. We need both to experience life. To understand our Heavenly Father’s plan for us. They both play a big role in the scriptures and in our lives.

What I’m writing here is solely my opinion, my understanding and my perceptiveness of the scriptures. I’m sure that we all have our own opinions. But I also know that we can all learn from each others' opinions as wells… I know I have. I’m not trying to interpret them. I’m just “sharing” my own perspective of them in the hope that I can give my children, or the reader a deeper love for them. Or make them more curious, and excited to read them. They are truly intriguing. Amazing. Magical. Because they are true. The stories are real. The Miracles, or magic is real I’ve read Harry Potter to my children, and I’ve read portions of The Twilight saga to them as well. They love the magic in them; the animals, plants and places. They loved the wolves in the Twilight saga and the battles that both series went through. They told me that they wished there were some magic now, like in those series. I told them that “the Scriptures are full of them and the best part is that those records are real. Unlike the characters of these two series; the people in the scriptures did existed: By the power of God Moses did parted the sea, he cause Aaron to turn a rod into a snake; he cause the sky to rain fire and hail; frogs, lice, flies; and locus. Those are pretty darn scary rains if you ask me There was also evil magic like those of Pharaoh’s Magicians”. I would mention other accounts, like the donkey that reproached his master Balaam for mistreating him. .Or the power of the Savior. The miracles that he performed. Walk on the water, stopping the storms, and the winds: Being able to resurrect. How cool is that? That we are spirit children of our Heavenly Father and we lived with him in another world; that we are strangers with amnesia and a costume we agreed upon on this land, striving to earn our way back home as we search to remember who we really are; where we come from; why we’re here and where we’re going after this life is over. The knowledge we gain and what we do with that knowledge will determine if we earned the rights to sit on his right side, to live with him again, but this time, as kings and queens to reign with him forever That is an amazing, and incredible reality I could go on and on,… and I have done so. This is why I want to write about them. That my children as well as others may see the reality, the magic, the great treasure we have in them and how real they are. They are the key to our existence … So here I go.

First of all, we need to understand that the word “Bible” means library or a more accurate word bibliotheca (a book collection; library. A catalog of books), from Medieval Latin (biblia), from Greek biblia, “(The) books”, from Spanish biblia derive from biblioteca (bibliotheca).

So, with this in mind. We know that Bible means 'Many books' (Sacred books).

I want to write about each book in the Bible. Review some specific scriptures, but not all. Give you an idea of the simplicity of the stories. Sometimes we read the scriptures like scriptures... something very serious, which they are, but... They are also true stories, histories of ancient people, people like you and me. Sometimes we read them like there is a big mystery to solve. Yes, there are a lot of things that we can meditate upon. Things that can be very deep and intense... But really, some are a lot simpler than we think. We can read and analyze more than what it’s actually there. The scriptures are simple. If we just read them to know the characters and the people involved and find the moral of their stories, and how they apply to us: That’s the beginning of understanding them. Just relax and read them to know the characters of the stories. Be prayerful, and open minded. The Spirit will do the rest.

Here is an example of plain and simple, yet many have made it into a big mystery:

GENESIS:
Some people find it hard to believe that God has a body like ours? The Scriptures indicates that he does. In Genesis 1:26-27 “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:….. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” In The American Heritage dictionary it says that image, likeness is like the reflection, reproduction, copy or the double …. of someone or something: in this case of someone. In Genesis 5:3 “And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his own image; and called his name Seth.” The word likeness is the same as reflection. In the first scripture God uses the word image first, then likeness: Image is more like an appearance than a reflection; so, if I was to read these scripture using the dictionary’s meaning of these words; it would mean that man was created according to what God looks like with arms and legs and so forth… On the second scripture likeness is used first to describe one of the sons of Adam. Now,’ likeness’ is more of a copy, than it is an image. So Seth must’ve looked so very much like his father, like the double of Adam in a younger version. In reading these verses It is a very clear cut reading that God has a body with arms and legs and so forth. He is not a mist, or energy floating in us or around us. He is a Supreme being with a body like ours. The dictionary clarifies the wording. Our own spirits and bodies bear witness of that truth as well....

Well, this is all I will write for now. Next week I will pick up where I left off in Genesis and continue from there. Thank you.

JC