The first step is observation. In this step we observe as much as possible from the passage. Ask a lot of questions of the text, look for connections, look for repeated words and phrases. I used eyes because it demonstrates the need to simply look at the text.
In this step, we seek to figure out what the passagemeans. We build on our observations and seek to understand what message the original author had in mind. To do this, we must bridge the gap (language, time, culture) and understand what it meant to them. This is why I chose the image of two worlds: we must (in our world) understand what it meant to them (in their world).
In this step we seek to identify the big idea of the passage. What is the main point of the author? What is the general principle that he is trying to get across to his audience? I chose to use a melting pot to signify the fact that when we boil down all the ingredients of the passage (all the individual words and sentences), we should come up with one big idea of the text.
In the fourth step, we must ask ourselves, “What difference does this make?” We take the general principle from step three and see how we can apply it to our contemporary world. I chose the image of a man running because I want to stress to point that the general principle should lead to action on our part. We take what we learned in steps 1-3 and we can apply them to our own world in a way that causes us to change (which leads us to step four).
In the final step, we must ask ourselves, “What must I change in my own life?” The Bible teacher must never remove himself from the implications of the text. He must be a Bible student himself. I chose a “To Do” list as the image because we really need to give ourselves specific things to do in this step.
