VerseNotes exists to help people read the Bible with understanding and curiosity-driven delight instead of obligation and guilt.
Why Bible Reading Feels Hard
Most of us were never taught how to read the Bible. We jumped straight from Sunday school stories to scholars and theologians, with nothing in between.
But the Bible isn’t like anything else you’ve ever read. It’s not a single book; it’s a library. Trying to read it cover-to-cover is less like reading a novel and more like trying to read an entire library shelf straight through.
The books of the Bible were written in many genres, by many authors, over many centuries. History, poetry, prophecy, sermons, letters—you have to read differently in different places, sometimes even in different parts of the same book.
And then there’s distance. We’re separated from the original readers by language (unless you speak ancient Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic), by culture (unless you live in the ancient Near East), and by time—hundreds and hundreds of years.
In other words: reading the Bible is hard.
Guilt Vs. Faithfulness
Despite all that, the core problem isn’t that reading the Bible is difficult. It’s how we interpret that difficulty.
When we struggle, we don’t say, “Reading the Bible is hard.” We say, “I’m bad at reading the Bible.”
That’s like saying you’re bad at math when you’ve never taken a math class.
We come to Scripture looking for inspiration, transcendence, or at least deep emotional or spiritual experience. When it doesn’t happen—when we read slowly, feel confused, or walk away unchanged—we assume something is wrong with us.
But confusion is normal. Slowness is normal. Difficulty is normal.
We have to learn to decouple faithfulness—the quiet discipline of returning to Scripture—from feeling—that mountaintop experience we assume everybody else gets whenever they open the book.
Faith is not measured by how you feel. Often, it’s measured by the fact that you keep showing up at all.
How Understanding Changes Everything
The real consequence of all these challenges is simple: the Bible is hard to understand.
So our goal can’t be checking off boxes in a reading plan or comparing ourselves to the pastors and leaders in our congregation. Those leaders should understand more than we do—they’ve had years or decades of experience, and often formal training through books and classes or even seminary.
The real goal is a deeper relationship with God.
And the path to that relationship is delight in Scripture.
Delight doesn’t come from obligation or pressure. It grows out of curiosity. And curiosity grows out of understanding.
Structure → Curiosity → Delight → Depth
The VerseNotes approach to Bible reading is designed to move you toward that goal, no matter where you’re starting from. Once you’ve internalized that you’re not bad at reading the Bible, the journey unfolds in four stages.
1. Structure
Because the Bible is immense, the first step toward understanding is structure.
Structure means learning a few simple, portable frameworks that help you organize what you’re reading so that everything has a place. There are many good structures, and none of them is the right one. Choose the ones that work for you—ones you can remember, apply quickly, and return to easily.
When you have a place for everything, you can start building footholds as you read. I use my Chapter By Chapter approach, but highlighting, journaling or other methods work just as well. The point isn’t the method; it’s having somewhere to stand.
2. Curiosity
Structure creates safety.
Safety gives curiosity room to breathe.
Instead of wondering whether you’re doing it “right,” you’re free to look around, ask questions, and notice what catches your attention. You’re no longer following someone else’s path through Scripture; you’re beginning to follow your own.
3. Delight
Curiosity leads to delight.
When you’re allowed to pursue what interests you, rather than what you think you should be interested in, reading becomes enjoyable. And the more enjoyable something is, the more deeply you engage with it.
Delight doesn’t distract from faithfulness; it strengthens it. It draws you back again and again, not because you have to, but because you want to.
4. Depth
For some readers, curiosity naturally leads to depth.
Once you have confidence, structure, and freedom, you can dive into any book of Scripture and discover that every rock you turn over has a thousand more beneath it. There’s no pressure and no finish line—just you, God, and His Word, going wherever He leads.
Going Deeper (When You’re Ready)
Scripture is fractal. Two thousand years of faithful readers and scholars haven’t exhausted its riches, and you won’t either. Scripture rewards infinite attention.
Take all the time you want. Go in whatever direction delights your mind and refreshes your soul. You don’t need permission. You won’t miss out. You’re not doing it wrong.
You can linger in one book or verse for years, or you can survey the whole story again and again. Choose your joy.
What VerseNotes Is (and Isn’t)
VerseNotes is a companion along this pathway—from difficulty to structure, from understanding to curiosity, and finally to delight in every verse of the Word of God.
It’s a library, not a curriculum, for Christians who want to love the Bible. You’ll find resources at multiple depths, along with tools, guides, and Scripture-anchored meditations to support you along the way.
VerseNotes is not a comprehensive examination of the Bible or a systematic theology. It’s not written by a professional theologian. And it’s not a profit-driven platform designed to sell expensive courses.
It exists for one reason:
To help people read the Bible with understanding and curiosity-driven delight instead of obligation and guilt.