My wife ordered a twin seat glider rocker a few weeks ago. It came in a big brown box. You know, the kind of box that says "minor assembly required" (a blatant case of false advertising). I opened it up & found the instructions, which were one sheet with illustrations so small it was hard to tell which part in the picture corresponded to the actual part in the box. I spent about 30 minutes looking at the instructions before I decided to set them aside and just put it together. As I got further into it, I glanced at the instructions from time to time to see if they made any more sense given the progress I had made. Sure enough, they were easier to understand once I was actually doing the work. After that, the rest of the assembly was a breeze.
A few days later, it occurred to me that these instructions have something in common with the Bible. When you first start reading the Bible, parts of it don't make sense. You study some, ask questions, listen closely to what the preacher says, study some more, scratch your head, ask some more questions, etc. You can't study it forever, though. At some point you have to put the Bible down and start applying it. Once you apply it, go back and study it again. Keep repeating this cycle of study and application. That's the key to a greater understanding of the Bible. It's not a coffee table book you glance through, it's an instruction manual. Instructions are not meant to be read over and over - you have to apply them to fully understand them.
