A few years ago our family decided to leave the helter-skelter of big city living and relocate on a small Missouri farm, seven miles south of nowhere. Because of some business obligations which kept me in Phoenix for a few weeks (and some adroit footwork), my wife drew tile responsibility of finding our "dream home" and making the necessary arrangements for the move.

One of the "vital" requirements of the "new place" was that it have a good fishing pond not far from the back door (I'll let you figure out whose requirement that was). As usual, my better-half performed the impossible and found the ideal home on a few acres with a nice pond (the house even had indoor plumbing ... I think). Now about the pond . . .

This little body of water was about fifty or sixty feet wide and you could see the bottom for about three feet from the shoreline, then the water was muddy towards the center. When the kids and I fished we always cast our lines to the middle because—as all great fishermen know—the big ones are in the deep water.

Summer came and went and the Missouri cold cast its lid of ice over our little fishin' hole. The kids soon wanted to play on the ice, which caused us “city slickers” some concern. What if the ice wasn't thick enough? What if they fell into the deep water? So we waited ... and we waited ... until the weather had frozen virtually everything (including me) and then gave our permission to go and play on the pond.

The next spring the ice melted and my adventurous son decided to see just how deep the water was. To all our surprise, he waded across our miniature Lake of the Ozarks without even getting his hip pockets wet. We had made a false assumption that led to all kinds of uncalled for actions and concerns. We figured that the water was deep because we couldn't see the bottom.

Now the point! This story reminds me of some preaching I've heard. Because I couldn't see to the bottom, I thought it was deep. But, you know what? It might just have been muddy! The Bible is a marvelous book. It is designed to be understood, not to be deep just for the sake of depth. There isn't one single piece of information in the Bible which is necessary to salvation that cannot be understood by the common man. That is why Mark 12:37 says, "the common people heard Him gladly."

When some preachers infer that to be faithful you must become experts in Greek, Hebrew or the like, just take a step back and beware. When you hear men say, "I know that is what it says, but the Greek changes the meaning," don't you believe it! Ask yourself, "Would God give us a commandment upon which rests the destiny of our soul and not provide us the clear means of understanding?" The old adage about the Book remains true: "It says what it means and means what it says."