the Bible is a foreign place

A lot of times I open the Bible and begin to read, only to read the whole passage and then not know anything about what I Just read.  I think that the Bible can be very confusing to a lot of people, even to people that have a degree in ministry or something that has to do with religion.  The Bible uses words and phrases that are very foreign to me and in the past, that has made me shy away from reading the word because I would not understand anything that it wanted me to learn.  In chapter one, it says that we become tourists in a foreign land.  I believe that because when we read the culture and language that the people of biblical times were accustomed to is completely different from what we are used to in modern times.  I think that that little section of this chapter really inspired me to keep reading the Bible because it shows that other people, even scholars that teach about the Bible, run into problems interpreting what the word says.  If scholars get confused, then that means that I definitely should as well.  There is no way that I should fully grasp it on the first try if they do not.  It was good to read that because it motivates me to keep reading and to dive deeper and really try to interpret the word of God.  I know now that I am supposed to be confused and the only way to figure it out is to really challenge myself and read it over and over again.  If I do that and have conversations with Jesus about what he is trying to tell me, then I think I will figure it out eventually….. until the next passage.