Yes, I'm a little late with this week's episode, and yes, this is an audio only episode, so my apologies. Don't forget to get the free worksheet from my website, primarily scripture.com. It's a free resource for anyone who wants a little extra help in learning to study the scriptures. In February, I've been sharing tips about how to make Jesus the focus of your study. And coming up in March, we're talking about strategies to help you understand what you're reading because that's a huge hurdle for a lot of us. And since most of this week is February, but then we also end the week in March, today I am giving you two tips. One to help you focus more on the Savior, and a really important one for understanding the Old Testament. I'm Cindy Young, and this is Primarily Scripture. All right. Thank you so much for being here. This week's Come Follow Me is in Genesis chapters 18 through 23. And there's a lot in here. We get the story of Abraham and Isaac, but there are also some really confusing parts. In February, all of my study tips were all about finding and focusing on Jesus as you study. And I have one more for you, but I also think you need the first study tip for March this week, because March is all about helping you understand what you read. Understanding really is the first step if you're going to read and study any of the scriptures. If you don't understand what you're reading, you might as well be reading it in a different language. You are not gonna be able to find the messages and the lessons or learn anything if you don't understand. So let's talk about my tip for understanding the Bible first. Okay, here it is. Use other translations to help you. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, and not many of us speak Hebrew anymore, and then it was translated into other languages, and we are so grateful for the work that these people in history did. There were a lot of people who just kept the records safe, and would write them down, make copies, and eventually they were translated into other languages. But most of the people who did all this were not prophets. And sometimes things were changed or left out, and there are various reasons for that. We don't even know a lot of them. And that's why the eighth Article of Faith says, "We believe the Bible to be the word of God, as far as it is translated correctly..." There are a lot of places in the Bible where there was something mistranslated. So the very first version that I'm going to encourage you to look at - besides your regular King James Bible (which is the official English version the church uses)- the first version you should look at after that is the Joseph Smith translation. To find that you can either flip to the very back of your paper Bible, it's next to the Bible Dictionary, or go into your Gospel Library app. You click on "Scriptures," and"Study Helps," and then click on "Joseph Smith Translation." There's an introduction here, and that clarifies that this is more of a revelation than it is a translation. Joseph Smith wasn't looking at the Hebrew and retranslating it. He did this by inspiration and revelation. So you can read this introduction if you have any more questions about that. From there, you can see that it's divided up by books, and we can click on Genesis, and we see that there are significant parts of Genesis chapters 19 and 21 that have changes made here in this JST, or Joseph Smith Translation. Other chapters of Genesis, too, but 19 and 21 are the ones that are within this week's reading. So the JST verses in chapter 21 clarify a few things about like who was planting the trees and some things like that. You probably won't get lost if you don't read this JST. But in chapter 19, there is a part here that if you don't have the JST version, then you might be confused, because it makes it sound like Abraham's nephew, Lot, didn't care about protecting his daughters. But the JST version clarifies that Lot was indeed actually trying to protect his daughters from wicked men. So the King James version actually says the wrong thing right here. It was translated incorrectly. So be sure you're checking the Joseph Smith translation, both in the study helps, and you can also find JST in the footnotes. The other translations that you can use are actually newly recommended in the handbook of the church, and I'm super excited about this! I think everybody should go look at this! In your Gospel Library app, go to"Scriptures" and scroll all the way down to the bottom, and you'll see"Translations and Formats." From there, click on "Holy Bible" and you can scroll to find your language. And here in English you'll see that it first tells us the official version that the church uses, and that's the King James version. But then, it lists other translations that have been approved. This means that these specific versions were checked, and the church found that these versions did a good job of keeping true to the King James Bible, but they've been written in a way that's easier to understand. You'll see there are several versions here to choose from, and, this is really great, they're labeled by their reading level. So just pick the version that you think would help you to understand the scriptures the best, and click on it. It does take you to a place to download the Holy Bible app, and this app lets you load all of the versions onto it. I ended up downloading all of these versions that are listed into my Holy Bible app, and it's really great because you can easily switch between them as you read. Understanding what you read is such an important part of scripture study. This is like, my very first tip for anybody, and I include it in every single worksheet! If you look at this week's worksheet or any of the worksheets for that matter, you'll see that the first column here on the left is pure scripture. And then in the second column, it's written out again, but in easier to understand words. We don't speak the same way today that they spoke back then, and so sometimes it just feels confusing, almost like you're reading Shakespeare! So I've rewritten it in easier to understand modern day terms. But I don't make worksheets that cover the entire Bible. Each week I only cover a handful of verses. So if you're feeling like you really don't understand the Old Testament, try one of these other translations. And of course, don't forget to check that Joseph Smith translation every now and then. All right. Now let's talk about our final tip for finding Jesus in the Old Testament. When you are reading a story about someone in the Bible, it might be Abraham or Sarah or Daniel or Rebecca, I want you to ask yourself, how does this remind me of Jesus? Because Jesus isn't always mentioned, but there is a lot in here talking about the stories of the people. We read all about the good and bad things that people do. So if you're reading about a good thing that someone did ask yourself, when did Jesus do this same kind of thing, or when did he teach about it? For instance, if Daniel prayed, ask yourself, when did Jesus pray? When Jacob shows patience, ask, how did Jesus show patience? When Rebecca is kind, ask yourself, what did Jesus teach about kindness and how did he show that kindness to others? Do you see where I'm going with this? Every good attribute that anybody has in the Old Testament can remind you of Jesus Christ. All you have to do is take a minute to connect those good things to Jesus. It's your job to make that connection. Now what if you're reading a story and there's something bad that someone does? Well, then I would encourage you to ask, what did Jesus teach about this? When Sarah doubts remember that Jesus told Peter to doubt not. And when evil men are trying to get Lot's daughters and the holy men, remember that Jesus taught not only to not commit adultery, which is one of the 10 commandments, but Jesus said to not even lust after another person- He taught the higher law. When Solomon builds a temple, remember Jesus teaching in the temple and cleansing the temple and prophesying that the temple of his body would be destroyed and then rise again three days later. Remember that Jesus said, "search the scriptures... they are they which testify of me." When Jesus said this, He was talking to the Jews, but He couldn't have been talking about the Book of Mormon. The Jews didn't have the Book of Mormon to read. He couldn't have been talking about the Doctrine and Covenants - that wouldn't come forth for thousands of years still. And he wasn't talking about the New Testament because that's the story of his life! It was happening still! He was talking about the Old Testament!"Search the scriptures, they testify of me!" And it may seem like the Old Testament doesn't talk about Jesus as much as the other books of scripture, but Jesus himself said that they definitely do teach of Him. So use this trick and ask yourself how each person and their attributes and their actions can remind you of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. It can help you to find Him, even if His name hadn't been mentioned in the whole chapter! And it's especially important when you're reading about Abraham and Isaac, because that whole story points us to Jesus Christ. I hope you find these tips helpful as you study this week. I'm Cindy Young. Thank you for joining me here on Primarily Scripture. Thanks for tuning into primarily Scripture with Cindy Young. Don't forget you can subscribe to the newsletter and download free worksheets on the website, primarily scripture.com. And if you like the channel, be sure to subscribe, like, share, and leave a review. See you next time.