It bears repeating

'I said it once before but it bears repeating' exults Joss Stone, who Fell in Love with a Boy. Strange though it is, the writers of the 66 books of the Bible agree with singer Joss Stone. 

The Blues singers keep hitting their theme. Their grief, joy, love or blues bear repeating. They want us to get it, to feel it, to know and understand their point of view. 

This is also true of the Bible's writers. Repetition is a big key to see the writer's point. Their big ideas are like a chorus. So, when reading God's word, look for repeated words or ideas in a paragraph, chapter, or whole book of the Bible. Look for the chorus. 

But you can only see these repeated words or ideas if you read whole paragraphs, chapters and whole books. Reading 'a special verse for the day' or whatever your app throws up on your screen in a Bible streak is like listening to just one line from a song and trying to guess the words to the whole song. Hopeless. 

God uses ordinary human language and ordinary means to bring wonderful spiritual truths to us. And, we find them using the ordinary but extraordinary method of reading what the writer wrote and listening for their meaning. Like some classic blues singer the ideas that matter to them bear repeating. They want to tell us of God's love for us in Jesus.