How to Read the Bible – A Three Step Plan (written for Catholics - valid for all)

taylormarshall.com ^ | September 30, 2013 | Dr. Taylor Marshall

[NYer]

How do you read the Bible? Today is the feast day of Saint Jerome, who once quipped, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.”

“Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” – Saint Jerome

It’s a running joke that if you want to find a Bible verse, you ought to ask a Protestant and not a Catholic. Protestants read the Bible. Catholics not so much.

This raises the question:

Why Don’t More Catholics Read the Bible?

I think the answer lies in the fact that we Catholics go to Mass. The Holy Mass has at least two Bible readings every time. If you pray the Breviary or Liturgy of Hours, multiply that several times.

Joe Catholic says to himself, “Why should I study the Bible? I go to Mass. I hear it there. Check and check.”

There is something beautiful in this. For Catholics, Bible reading is liturgical. Hence, Bible reading remains chiefly a community experience.

Three Step Plan to Kick It Up a Notch

It’s good to listen to the readings from the Bible at Holy Mass. However, we also need a personal (even private) encounter with God in the pages of Sacred Scripture. All of the saints breathed Sacred Scripture. Scripture served as the grammar for their souls. They couldn’t communicate without it.

Here are some basic spiritual needs that you have every single day of your life:

1. Praise – Voicing your delight in God and His provision for your life. Gratitude destroys discouragement.
2. Wisdom – You need practical advice to navigate the complexities of life.
3. Challenge – You need to be lifted higher. You need to grow in your faith. You need to be inspired. You must be an intentional Christian.

So when you wake up tomorrow, do the following:

1. Read a Psalm. Start with Psalm 1. Make it your anthem of praise for that day.
2. Read at least one Proverb. Proverbs are the wisdom morsels of your day. There are 31 chapters. Why not read one chapter every day during the month. Oct 1 is Provers 1. October 31 is Proverbs 31. You get the idea.
3. Read a chapter of the one of the Gospels. This is your challenge. Your Savior challenges you in the four Gospels. He calls you to be not merely a nominal Catholic but a disciple. You cannot seriously read the Gospels and stay lukewarm. Christ speaks in a way that cannot be ignored.

“But I’m so busy. I don’t have the time!”

What? You’re too busy. Sorry, you just got served a yellow card:

That’s a yellow card. You’ve been warned…

Doing these three readings will take you only 3-5 minutes. That’s the time of a commercial break. It will change your life for good. I promise. It takes 21 days to make a habit, so give it 21 days and see if you aren’t hooked. Put the Bible on your night stand and read it in the mornings. Start fresh.

“Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” – Saint Jerome, Doctor of the Church

[NKP_Vet]

“Well, I will tell you here and now, you’re wrong. Nobody is feeling guilty about leaving Catholicism”.

Then why do you bash Catholicism with all these long diatribes? Always, and I mean always, telling others how wrong Catholicism is, and never once saying Catholics do anything right.

I will say it a millions times over, a devout Catholic would never leave the Catholic Church to follow any other faith.

And Jimmy Swaggart can say you don’t have to belong to any Church to be a follower of Jesus, just watch his TV program, till he’s blue in the face, does not make it true.

Have a good day.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

“Then why do you bash Catholicism with all these long diatribes?”

It does take quite a few words to correct the false claims you are making on this thread. That isn’t
“bashing”. That is correction of falsehood. It is a response to what you are posting, that is never
backed up with anything.

The solution is to simply post the truth, instead of making grandiose claims.

“And Jimmy Swaggart”

Got Straw?

It would appear in these posts that your view of non-Catholics is Martin Luther and Jimmy Swaggart.

[NKP_Vet]

“It would appear in these posts that your view of non-Catholics is Martin Luther and Jimmy Swaggart”.

I know the truth and the “true will set you free”. The
Catholic Church is the truth, not some man-man, any one of 35,000 protestant churches around the world.

Come on in, the water’s fine.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

“I know the truth and the “true will set you free”. The Catholic Church is the truth, not some man-man, any one of 35,000 protestant churches around the world.”

And yet...

1. You cannot prove this outlandish claim.
2. You ask everyone to rely on your pronouncement alone as truth.
3. You rank your own opinion more highly than God’s Word.
4. You presume anything not Roman is man-made with no proof.
5. You bash other groups, while claiming your group is being bashed.

In short...

1. you have never provided any evidence on this thread, after being asked time and time again, that would support any opinion you posted as being true.
2. your posts are laced with (LDS) Luther Derangement Syndrome and (SDS) Swaggert Derangement Syndrome.
3. your posts constantly deride any former Roman who comes to faith in Christ and finds a new place to worship.

No reason to think your posts are a credible source of information at all.

I’ve tried to hear you out. I’ve asked you for credible information. Your posts utterly fail to respond to any evidence that disproved them by multiple posters. In short, this thread has been a colossal fail for the agenda you’ve tried to push.

Delusion works that way. Certainty, apart from reality. Grandiose claims. Criticism of those who do not agree. Scapegoats. Straw-man arguments. Logical fallacies.

It is a very sad picture.

[NKP_Vet]

“Delusion works that way”.

Delusion or ignorance of history is the case for any protestant that denies the Catholic Church’s role in the history of Christianity over the last 2,000 years. Stay in your false religion till the cows come home. In the end it will be the Church that has been around 2,000 years that is still standing with the Lord does return. Not some false religion started by Joe Smith, Charlie Brown, or the tooth fairy.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Repeating claims does not prove them.

[daniel1212]

I have told you a million times not to exaggerate!

[boatbums]

Before you sign off on this thread, please answer my question at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/3072978/posts?page=1708#1708

I have a suspicion that this will not be last we hear from you on your contention that there has "never been anti-Protestant bigotry on FR".

[boatbums]

You were mentioned by name and accused of lying by someone without pinging you to the post. Just thought you should know.

[boatbums]

And HAVE been doing so for at least the last thousand years??? See http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/696871/posts

[boatbums]

I will say it a millions times over, a devout Catholic would never leave the Catholic Church to follow any other faith.

I will say it a millions times over, a devout non-Catholic Christian would never leave the assurance of the Christian faith to follow any other faith that can NEVER promise eternal salvation.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

"Not some false religion started by Joe Smith, Charlie Brown, or the tooth fairy."

Wow, you complain in your posts that people "bash" the Roman church by correcting your mispostings...

Now you bash Charlie Brown and the Tooth Fairy. Cold. Really Cold.

[metmom]

Whatever happened to following Jesus instead of a religion?

Seems like He’s just a window dressing to some.

[metmom]

Straw men are pretty much all Catholics have to knock down.

It’s as much as they can handle.

[metmom]

Then why do you bash Catholicism with all these long diatribes?

Long diatribes bashing Catholics?

Where? What post numbers?

Always, and I mean always, telling others how wrong Catholicism is, and never once saying Catholics do anything right.

Always?

You clearly do not read FR enough.

[metmom]

Then why do you bash Catholicism with all these long diatribes?

Long diatribes bashing Catholics?

Where? What post numbers?

Always, and I mean always, telling others how wrong Catholicism is, and never once saying Catholics do anything right.

Always?

You clearly do not read FR enough.

And Jimmy Swaggart can say you don’t have to belong to any Church to be a follower of Jesus, just watch his TV program, till he’s blue in the face, does not make it true.

I don't give a rip what Jimmy Swaggart has to say. Why are you dragging him into the discussion?

[metmom]

I post Scripture to counter the false teachings of Catholicism.

If someone wants to consider that a diatribe, they have more issues than they realize.

[metmom]

I know the truth and the “true will set you free”. The Catholic Church is the truth, not some man-man, any one of 35,000 protestant churches around the world.

JESUS is the truth.

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Not a church, not a religion, not a *faith*, not anything or anyone but Jesus.

[NKP_Vet]

How many Catholics in the United States compared to whatever protestant faith you follow?

Oh, I almost forget you and the good Lord got a good thing going, you don’t need no stinkin’ religion telling you what think.

[NKP_Vet]

“Not a church, not a religion, not a *faith*, not anything or anyone but Jesus”.

So to hell with Jesus telling Peter “Upon this rock I would be MY CHURCH”.

You don’t need no church, makes no difference if Jesus Christ said it or not. He only talked in parables anyway and didn’t mean anything he said.