Biblical Literacy

I've read through the Bible in its entirety two or three times now.  Not incredible, but also not terrible as far as a life accomplishment for my age.  Even though I've read it a couple times, however, I'd say my Biblical literacy is not high -- not at all.  I attribute a lot of that to poor reading comprehension.  I also attribute a lot of it to just wanting to make it through whatever arbitrary checkpoint I've established within a time frame (e.g., read these 4 chapters today so you can make it through the Bible in a year).  Under that model, at least for me, a lot of what I'm reading starts to run together.

This summer, I was very convicted when a friend of mine listed off five or ten not terribly challenging questions that were maybe on par with a B+/A- level of Biblical literacy.  For example, what were the main purposes behind each of the four gospels?  Could you pick five of the minor prophets and explain their themes?  I realized that I would have gotten about a 50% on his quiz and was immediately convicted (and sort of embarrassed).

While I can adequately tell many of the stories in the Bible -- especially those of Jesus shared in the Gospels -- and could quote a lot of scripture from the Bible, I'm afraid I've missed the overarching themes and a whole lot of what the prophets had to say.  I also haven't appreciated the motivations and intentions behind many of the authors.

This year to help fill in the gaps, I've been reading What the Bible is All About in conjunction with reading the Bible everyday.  It is helping me to understand what I'm reading a lot more.  I'm also using the audio part of the YouVersion app that allows me to both read and hear what I'm reading at the same time.  All of this is really helping me to understand what I'm reading a lot better.  I am halfway through the minor prophets at this point and I am appreciating what I've read a lot more.  I am praying that the Lord really does help me to better grasp what I am reading rather than just viewing Bible reading as something to knock off of a list.

This year I feel like the Lord wants me to learn about HIM -- who He is, His character, how to trust Him -- instead of taking an intellectual, theoretical approach to God like I did growing up and in college.  However, I believe that growing in Bible literacy will be an important component to being able to better understand the person and character of God, and I pray He will speak to me through the word.  Another important aspect of development that the Lord is helping me with this year.