It is wonderful when you find a great Bible-teaching church, but your responsibility doesn’t stop there.  You need to delve into God’s Word on your own on a daily basis.  Remember, God’s Word is more important than your necessary food.  Physical nourishment is essential, but spiritual nourishment is far more important to the Christian.  This can sound rather intimidating but we are so blessed today to have an abundance of resources that can help us study the Bible on our own.  The first requirement for every student of God’s Word is your textbook, and your textbook, of course, is the Bible and there are literally hundreds to choose from.  When it comes to effective Bible study you should choose a Bible translation and not a paraphrase. The Bible is inspired by God as written in the original languages (Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic).  Peter says in I Peter 1:21 that God superintended the authors of Scripture so that His Word was accurately committed to writing, “For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” Jesus Christ Himself taught in Matthew 5:18 that every individual word and, in fact, every letter of Scripture is inspired and extremely valuable, “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Basically Jesus is saying, here, that every stroke of the pen, down the tiniest mark, is inspired by God and will never pass away.  God is a God of details and the details are important.  So choose your Bible translation carefully.  Your christian friend should be able to help you make the best decision, here, but there are numerous good Bible translations out there including; the King James, New King James, New American Standard, The New International,  The English Standard, and Holman Christian Standard, to name a few.  This is not to say that you should not read a Bible paraphrase because they do have their place on your bookshelf, but if you can only afford one Bible, be sure it is a good word-for-word translation as opposed to a thought-for-thought translation or paraphrase.  If you cannot afford a Bible, check with your church. I am sure someone there would be more than happy to give you a Bible. If you have access to a computer or hand-held device such as iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, Android, etc., there are many Bibles available for free download.  For a list of many free Bible resources, check with Olive Tree Bible Software at www.olivetree.com.