The MESSAGE is a reading Bible. Read It in order to live, praying as you read, “God guide me as I read and may your will be done.”
Reading is the first thing, just read the Message Bible like a book. Listening to God from the Message as we read is the most important thing! As we read, and the longer we read, we begin to “get it” –we are in conversation with God. We find ourselves listening and answering in matters that most concern us: who we are, where we came from, where we are going what makes us tick, the texture of the world and the communities we live in, –most of all–the incredible love of God among us, doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
As we read the Message we come to realize the the focus of the Bible has to do with what God is doing in a saving love that includes us and everything that we do. The Bible begins with God speaking creation and us into being. It continues with God entering into personalized and complex relationships with us, and helping and blessing us, teaching and training us, correcting and disciplining us, loving and saving us. We also find that there is a connection between the Word Read and the Word Lived.
The Message is the Bible to read, to listen to and obey God.