Hermeneutics: Look for What Bothers You
I was listening to a Tim Bayly sermon the other day, and heard him say something like the following: The way to decide what to think about in the Bible is to decide what bothers you, and concentrate on that. I like that idea. It is a way to get out of the Bible more than you put in. Reading the parts you already agree with and act upon is not as useful as deliberately looking at the parts that make you feel uncomfortable because you don’t understand them or don’t like them or aren’t living up to them.