Dear God in Heaven! Please, don't ever pick up "The Message" or any other "paraphrased interpretation" of the Bible. They are people's (potentially flawed) interpretations of what the Bible means, not an attempt to actually translate the Word of God, but they pass it off as the Word. Reading it will only confuse you.

Get a study Bible, one that is a translation, and one that gives alternate ways to translate ambigous words (of which there many).

Love in Christ,