A year ago, I was this blissful Christian, going to Church on Sundays, listening to what the preacher taught me. I read my bible when I had the time. I got involved with the church. I tried my best to be a good person and “Love my neighbor as myself”.
But, all this changed when a dear friend of mine showed me something. She showed me the Bible, all at once, like a story. From Genesis through Revelation. And about 3 hours into this session, I saw our Bible in a totally new light. No disconnect between Old Testament and New Testament. The Bible for what it is… one single book!
Now, many would automatically say… “Obviously”, “The Bible is obviously one book”. Then why do we put more interest and importance on the New Testament? Why would we ask a new believer to read the New Testament first? The answer to that question from many would be that the New Testament contains the most important things, such as Jesus’ birth, life, death, resurrection and the work of the Holy Spirit.
But, can one really understand a book if He or She does not read it from the beginning? Do we buy any book for that matter, off of a shelf and straight off turn to chapter eight? You could still get the gist of the book by doing that. But would you really get a perfect understanding of it by starting off at the middle? And would you have the correct interpretation of the second half by skipping the first half?
This is what I believe has happened to most Christians today. Almost all Christians including myself have turned the book to Matthew, when we should have started at Genesis and followed through.
Some would say, “What’s there to know? those are just some stories”. 2000 years after the events written in the New Testament, we are so removed from the people, the language and the culture of the Bible, that we do not even realize where we are and what we are doing.
In the days and weeks to come, (with the help of God) I plan on discussing and posting my findings on themes such as (in no particular order)
- Jesus’ real name
- Who were the Pharisees
- Is God’s name LORD?
- What and when is the Sabbath? Is Sunday the Sabbath? Can it be any day?
- Did Jesus do away with God’s Commandments?
- Is Law against Grace?
- Biblical Definitions (Sin, Scripture, Israel, Jew, Gentile, Church, etc.)
- Did Jesus or any of His Disciples break God’s Commandments?
- House of Israel & House of Judah
- Passover or Good Friday?
- Jewish Feasts or God’s appointed times?
- Clean & Unclean foods
- What is the Old Covenant & the New Covenant?
- Is the Trinity doctrine scriptural?
My prayer for you is, that you would come to know the Bible and start doing Bible things in Bible ways.
Special Note: Please don’t believe anything that a man says or writes. That includes everything written in this Blog! We are so lucky to live in an age where each of us has a copy of the Holy Scriptures. (This wasn’t the case, even in Paul’s time). Read for yourself. Test everything. May the Holy Spirit guide you to the whole truth!
Bible things in Bible ways 
You, my friend, are my kindred spirit! I have been teaching a women’s Bible study for 20plus years. Eight years ago, we turned to the OT, and have been there ever since and are currently studying the book of Ezekiel. I have learned THE STORY!!! And because of now knowing His story, I have fallen in love with my God in a whole new way. I liken Israel to the missing piece in a puzzle, you cannot see the picture clearly until you plug in that missing piece and then suddenly everything becomes clear. Communicating THE STORY through teaching God’s word has become my mission in life. I look forward to reading your blog and rejoicing that God has put this very thing in other hearts than my own.
Hi Diana,
Thank you for the encouraging words. I believe it’s the time where His children, who truly seek Him, are coming to His fold. And I am truly blessed to have a family around the world, who want to please Him and Love Him, the way He has instructed His children. May you be a Blessing to everyone around you!!! Ramesh
After decades of being willingly an active member of the Roman Catholic faith, I found myself attending my wife’s Messianic Synagogue the past 12 months. And I am thrilled that I have. I am still very much Catholic but now I have a year of studying the Torah and yearn for more. For me this has bridged a huge gap that existed in my mind between the 1st (old) and 2nd (new) testaments. Now I understand the old adage that “the old testament is the new testament concealed while the new testament is the old testament revealed.” One can’t exist without the other. And nor should it. I am new at this discovery and your posts play an integral part in my biblical education. Thank you for your writings. Keep it going.
Dear Dennis,
Thank you for your kind and encouraging words. May you be a mighty blessing to everyone around you!
Ramesh, concerning Tarshish, I am more convinced it was Spain (lots of evidence for that).
Cinammon may have come from Sri Lanka, I wonder if it was also grown elsewhere in the ancient world.
I see you are from Sri Lanka, but seem to have a Portuguese surname?
Interesting, I am curious to know if you are Portugese, or Sri Lankanm or both.
Thanks for the interesting article on Sri Lanka!!!
Dear Cris,
It might be Spain. I cannot say that it is Sri Lanka for certain. Sri Lanka was invaded by the Portugese, Dutch & British. I am sure that it was God’s plan, as through them we received the Bible and Christianity. Many Sri Lankans have names connected to Spain, and most of our words in Sinhala(the local language) originate from Spanish words. Even though I have no way of tracing back my own lineage, it is connected to the Portugese, even though I am Sri Lankan.
Be a blessing to everyone around you!
Hi Ramesh,
Amen to that. It is going back to the roots that makes it all clear.
God Bless,
Gere.
Dear Gere,
I think so… looking at the text in context in the time and place it was written, opens your eyes to simple truths. For example, for some reason I always thought 2Tim 3:16 spoke of the whole bible as it is today… the book we have in our hands. But that does not make sense, when you think of it in context of Paul writing to Timothy, when even the Gospel books would have not been in circulation or may not have even been written. So in context Paul is speaking of the Old Testament Scriptures… but we read and think completely differently today.
The studies which opened my eyes are given below:
https://biblethingsinbibleways.wordpress.com/2015/09/13/genesis-to-revelation-1-plan-1-amazing-love-story/
https://biblethingsinbibleways.wordpress.com/2013/09/17/the-betrothal-divorce-and-re-betrothal-of-gods-people-through-messiah/
Be a blessing to everyone around you!
“We are so lucky to live in an age where each of us has a copy of the Holy Scriptures.” Really, do you think luck has a lot to do with it?
Dear John,
It’s a simple figure of speech. A synonym for being favoured or blessed.
Be a blessing to everyone around you
Wonderful Spiritually inspired blog! I pray your words reach the masses.
Dear Ramesh,
I’ve just stumbled on your explanation about the errors in the teaching on “Middle Wall of Separation”.
Thank you!:-)
I’m most interested to know what your friend explained to you in 3-hours, to show the unity of the OT and NT. Do you have materials which you xan send to me about this?
Thank you.
Dear Martin,
Please see below.
https://biblethingsinbibleways.wordpress.com/2015/09/13/genesis-to-revelation-1-plan-1-amazing-love-story/
Hope the Spirit of God shows you the same He showed me.
Be a blessing to everyone around you
Shalom
Hello, I’ve been studying these things you talk about for the past few months and am still learning (with eyes wide open) the things I was never taught in churches I’ve attended over the years. Reading the Scriptures with a clean slate and removing preconceived ideas was my start and YHWH is revealing truth to me. So much truth is pouring in all I want to do is study study study. While looking up something your blog popped up. I agree with most things you say and truly enjoy your posts. And I wanted to say thank you!