How To See More In Scripture Reading the Bible Differently

We love an easy read — the kind of book you take on holiday. But the Bible rarely presents itself that way. Sometimes it's hard because it challenges our opinions, and sometimes it's hard because we genuinely don't know what's going on. In this message, Pastor Sam O'Connell hands us two practical tools — parallelism and symmetrical patterning — that help us notice what the biblical authors are deliberately drawing our attention to, and pairs them with the practice of hagah: sitting with Scripture, chewing it over, and asking the Holy Spirit why. Scripture was written out of a culture that didn't just value wisdom, but valued the journey of getting there — the experience, the wrestling, the thinking. In a world where we consume everything at 1.5x speed, God is inviting us to slow down. Whether it's the two parallel lines of Psalm 33:6 or the pattern of creation broken by rest on the seventh day in Genesis 2, God is saying something. Learn how to see it, and you'll see more of Him: more of His nature, more of His will, more of what He has done for you.