5 Top Tips for reading the Bible for all its worth:

1. PRAY! Pray that the Holy Spirit will teach you and give you understanding
2. Source different versions of the Bible
3. Study large blocks of text instead of individual verses
4. Ignore headings (IE: chapters, subheadings and verses) and try not to start with joining words (EG: but, therefore, likewise, etc.).  Instead, determine where the topic begins and start from there.
5. Use a tool like S. O. S. (details below)

Basic SOS is all most people need, most of the time but let’s take a look at the next level.  “Sitz im Leben”. Are you OK, did you sneeze? No this is not a German blessing after a sneeze but it is the next level of studying the bible using a tool like S. O. S.  It sounds complicated but it’s not.  It is an old German phrase that roughly means “settings in life”.  It is just the process of putting the bible into the daily lives of people in its proper context.