The Bible is a record of and witness to divine-human encounter and relationship. To understand such stories, we have to understand that the Bible must not only be read; it must be interpreted. I am convinced that a significant portion of the difficulties many people have with the Bible is due to a lack of understanding of the historical process by which we received these inspired scriptures.

We have not paid sufficient attention to the story of how the Bible came to be written. If we read the Bible as a technical treatise in which every word stands on equal footing, we distort the meaning of scripture. If, on the other hand, we read every sentence of the Bible through the lens of Jesus Christ, we come to see God in all the glory we earth-bound and time-bound creatures can stand.