So, I just got finished purchasing myself a Bible of sorts that you can apparently color inside of. It's not that I have an affinity for defacing books or anything, but I figured that having colors in my bible might help me to concentrate better. And speaking of concentrating, I suppose it would be a good idea to start studying out of this $20 bible that I got. Otherwise, it would just be a big waste of money. So, my question is, how does a person do bible studies? If it helps any, I'll be focusing on the Old Testament rather than the New Testament, at least for now.
Do you have a local church that you like and can attend? Once you found a church, ask if they have a small Bible study group. It helps to talk with someone who is more advanced with the Bible and it gives you a chance to ask questions as well as listen to the interpretations of others. It should help to offer your own interpretations for correction. One website I found helpful is gotquestions.org. Their answers could change over time, but generally I found them to be a good website to understand the Bible. It is a conservative website, so their answers may not match your social views. That's okay. Once you start getting into the Bible, then you should become more comfortable with it and more confident in your interpretations. There are common questions that come up in the OT and that is the killing of women and children by God? Also, there will be questions about how ancient people lived so long? How could the Resurrection happen? Or how did Adam and Eve live? Or how could Noah's flood happen? Or how did the Tower of Babel happen?
If you get into a Bible studies group, I do not think one has to buy a lot of additional books that some churches recommend buying if funds are short.
Today, we have more atheists, especially online, and the issue of creation versus evolution. gotquestions.org is pretty good for answering those questions and questions about the Bible in a brief manner. For more in-depth answers, there are answersingenesis.org, creationwiki.org and christiananswers.net. One of the big questions that creationists face today is age of the earth. The answer to that is it has not been decided and there may never be an answer. Prior to 1800, the general public accepted creation but atheist scientists started to question creation and eventually seized control of science. This was due to uniformitarianism vs catastrophism and Charles Lyell and Charles Darwin. It led to creationism vs evolution today. Moreover, today secular scientists will not peer-review anything to do with creation, the Bible and the supernatural. This does not mean the defeat of creationism because creationism started coming back in the 1930s. Please understand that science is the search for the truth and that science has always been about disagreements, so the science has not been decided.
Many people online will refer you to wikipedia, but that isn't a good encyclopedia for creationists. It's not acceptable for school either. What's good about it is that it has sources to link one to articles they can read of interest. It's an online encyclopedia run by liberals to promote their biased views. They even have an online dictionary that promotes biased views, too, -- dictionary.com . For creation answers, try conservapedia. Something in-between would be britannica.com.
I think with faith, one will find God and be sure 100%. From there, one can refine their answers. I found it's not a search for God, but a search for the truth in our lifetimes that will set up free. I've been searching for the truth through Christianity since 2012.
Good luck and welcome to the path of salvation.
