Many of us know that we are suppose to read our Bibles. We have either heard it from our pastors, family, friends, or just from reading my blog. Reading the Bible is very important. But there is a difference between reading the Bible, and understanding what it says. Anyone can pick up the Bible and read it, but it takes time and effort to understand it. I know I have talked about reading the Bible, but today I want to provide an example of what it means to actually understand what the Bible is saying. So I'm going to go through one of my readings. Below is the verses and it is the story of when Jesus calmed the storm. This will be broken into two days, because if I put it in one day, it would get to long.
Matthew 8:23-27
Jesus Calms the Storm
23 Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping.25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”
26 He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
27 The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”
The first step is to read the passage. You can't understand something that you didn't read.
The second step that I do is to ask any questions that might help clarify the passage, like traditions back then, or the history around an event. One question I had was how sturdy was this boat? Back then they didn't have the ships like we do today. The boats they had weren't sturdy, and they could be easily overturned.
The third step I do is to reread the passage and mark it up. That could be highlighting it, making comments or connections, just whatever you do to understand the passage better. So below is my highlighting and comments.
23 Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping.25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”
26 He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
27 The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”
Comments
Red:The disciples trusted Jesus enough to follow Him into a boat in the middle of an lake.
Orange: Everything happened so fast that they couldn't prepare for it, like getting off the lake. But Jesus then calmed the storm as fast as it came up. Time wasn't an issue for Jesus.
Yellow: He was there and he could be called upon when needed. Nothing disturbs him.
Green: Desperation of the disciples whose trust was now gone.
Blue: Showing how little trust the disciples had in Jesus, that he had everything under control.
Purple: New to them, never seen before in any one else.
Pink: Shows how Jesus is the ruler over everything.
Now this is where I am going to stop for today. Next time, i'm going to talk about how you take your comments and annotations and relate them to you.
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for giving us your word to read, so that we may get to know you better, and we are able to follow your will for our lives. I know that it takes time to truly sit down to figure out the meaning of a passage, but I pray that you will help us find time, once a week at least, to go deeper into your word. Thank you for saving us from what ever storm we are in Lord. Amen.
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