Learn the Word of Truth
Everyone has their own way of becoming intimate with our holy scriptures. Personally I am a believer in keeping things simple so I tend to keep my ritual and "study tools" simple:
Translation Tools
My Bible Study Ritual
1. Always pray, especially for guidance and understanding, before opening the book.
2. Begin by just reading scripture until Holy Spirit tells you, for what ever reason, to stop.
3. Begin to drill down:
a) Take out all punctuation marks from the text in your mind and read it again.
(the original texts have no punctuation marks or breaks of any kind)
b) Translate and define key words within the text.
(The English translation often differs from the original meaning)
c) Review the cross-references for that verse.
d) BE SURE to keep what you are studying within the context of the chapter or chapters before and after it. Context is Key!
e) When you are satisfied you understand what you have just read, within it's context, begin to seek out the spirit of what you just read.
It's that simple! Really!
These things have I written unto you
concerning them that seduce you.
But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things and is truth and is no lie and even as it hath taught you
ye shall abide in him.
(1Jn 2:26-27)