You have just won a lovely vacation for two at a wonderful location of your choice!
Sad as it may be; you are dead on.
We should really inspect our lives through the lens of the Biblical microscope; instead of inspecting the Bible through our personal experiences.
Elsie:
Thanks for the vacation!, but as I get older, more and more risk averse about travelling.
There is nothing wrong with recognizing the lens through which one reads the scriptures, to not do so one risks the scriptures being read, as you said, through an individuals one experience and perspective. To me, that is very dangerous.
Churches that have Creeds and Confessions have parameters that have been set based on 1,900 years plus of theological Tradition. So when I confess the Nicene Creed, I know I am confessing what was confessed 1,700 years ago and will be confessed thousands of years in the future.
Thus, interpreting scripture is to be done in light of the faith defined and passed down through the centuries. If you think about it, you being a Wesleyan actually provides you with somewhat of a similar framework that say Catholics and Eastern Orthodox have, vs. those groups that rely on the “so called inspiration” of some individual.
Both Mormonism and JW came out movements based on individualism of scripture interpretation. I think you would actually agree with that.