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Do you read the Bible too fast?

The Bible is, at times, difficult to understand. But, not so difficult that we cannot come to an understanding of it, often with just the use of a few well-worded questions. Sometimes, we just read the Bible too fast, or are too familiar with a passage to really see its meaning.

The Bible is limitless in its depth. It is easy enough for a child to understand, but we can spend the rest of our lives plunging its depths.

Calvin Miller has a great story about this in the book Depths of God:

Like all visitors to the Reef, I was a first overwhelmed by the odd sensation of standing up - only ankle deep - seventy or ninety miles out in the middle of the ocean.  It was for me the odd sensation that Peter must have felt when he walked on the Sea of Galilee.

But once my “ankle-deep-wonder” had passed, I remembered why I had made the trip.  I was with my wife and son.  My son had come to scuba dive while my wife and I snorkeled.  Snorkeling is a pastime more than a sport.  For while my son plunged deeply beneath clear waters to bury himself in the wonder of the mysterious ocean depths, my wife and I, wearing masks, only floated on the surface facedown.

In some ways what we were all seeing looked the same.  But my wife and I literally sunburned our backs in our surface study of the reef, while our son plumbed its wonders.

Miller goes on to explain that both he and his son can tell you about that day and both can say they have been to the Great Barrier Reef.  But his knowledge is only surface while his son’s understanding has great depth.

What-does-the-text-mean questions help us to plumb the wonder of God’s word.

Get your copy of Good Questions Have Small Groups Talking: the book.