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

[editor-surveyor]

The “subject” is catholics constantly trying to scam the forum with pagan delusion, and outright doubletalk.

No need to change it.

[verga]

These glaring non-sequiturs show that whoever wrote the Greek was never present when Yeshua, or any other Jew spoke. The disciples speaking Hebrew slang would not be easy for a Hellenist to grasp, unless they were raised in a Jewish synagogue.

Funny stuff, please remind everyone that you will be here all week and to tip the waitress.

[verga]

I have told you the truth. It is now up to the Holy Spirit I can do no more.

[editor-surveyor]

We rely on the scriptures here, not RCC anecdotes, no matter if they’re 1600 years old.

[CynicalBear]

>> Lets stick with the actual definition, the primary definition "From above"<<

Yeah, that’s why Nicodemus asked how he could “enter the second time into his mother’s womb” because obviously she was “from above”.

John 3:4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?

>> I thought that was how I remembered it from the Grad level classes I took in Koine Greek.<<

Either you need to ask for you money back or admit common sense and context was totally left out of the course. Either way it looks to me like you got duped.

[Iscool]

The fact is that Christ’s flesh avails much! If it were of no avail, then the Son of God incarnated for no reason, he died for no reason, and he rose from the dead for no reason. Christ’s flesh profits us more than anyone else’s in the world. If it profits us nothing, so that the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Christ are of no avail, then “your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished” (1 Cor. 15:17b–18).

In John 6:63 “flesh profits nothing” refers to mankind’s inclination to think using only what their natural human reason would tell them rather than what God would tell them. Thus in John 8:15–16 Jesus tells his opponents: “You judge according to the flesh, I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone that judge, but I and he who sent me.” So natural human judgment, unaided by God’s grace, is unreliable; but God’s judgment is always true.

You are way, way out of context...The context is eating flesh...

There was probably some future Catholic in the crowd screaming, 'yeah, yeah, gimme an arm, gimme a leg, to which Jesus replied:

Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

It is the spirit that makes one alive, the flesh does nothing...

Your man made philosophy doesn't come into play at all...This is a Christian spiritual conversation taking place; not a Catholic philosophical one...

the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

That portion of the verse is lost on every Catholic that ever lived...

[CynicalBear]

>>Where did you do your study in Greek?<<

I rely on the real experts as I have told you before. Besides, if it’s actually true that you studied Greek it’s obvious it did you no good whatsoever.

[CynicalBear]

>>Wow, it must take severe density to come away from those classes with as little understanding as you demonstrate<<

It would be embarrassing for sure.

[verga]

Yeah, that’s why Nicodemus asked how he could “enter the second time into his mother’s womb” because obviously she was “from above”.

Here is the problem with self taught protestants. You all are completely unaware of the actuyal words used in the original Greek.

Jesus says: Anothon- from above.

On the other hand Nicodemus says: duetron- secondly. John 3: 3Jesus answered and said to him, "Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above (Anothon)."(Verse in contention, no comment required)

John 3:3 apekriqh o ihsouv kai eipen autw amhn amhn legw soi ean mh tiv gennhqh anwqen ou dunatai idein thn basileian tou qeou

John 3: 4 Nicodemus said to him, "How can a person once grown old be born again (duetron secondly)? Surely he cannot reenter his mother's womb and be born again, can he?" (Here is where the Prots really put their foot in it. Nicodemus never says again (Palon) he says Secondly (Deuteron)

John 3:4 legei prov auton o o nikodhmov pwv dunatai anqrwpov gennhqhnai gerwn wn mh dunatai eiv thn koilian thv mhtrov autou deuteron eiselqein kai gennhqhnai

Either you need to ask for you money back or admit common sense and context was totally left out of the course. Either way it looks to me like you got duped.

The only ones being duped are those that don't listen to the Catholics.

[Iscool]

BECAUSE IT WAS A BAD TRANSLATION, AND THAT PROHIBITION WAS IN EFFECT FOR THAT TRANSLATION IN THAT LOCATION ONLY! Don't let the facts get in the way of prot opinions.

That's nonsense for 2 reasons...The first is you guys claim there wasn't any bible but the Catholic bible...

And the 2nd is that those of us whom actually read bibles know that a non Catholic person can get saved and into a non Catholic church by studying a so called Catholic bible...

And a priest can pervert a non Catholic bible just as well as he perverts a Catholic bible and can fool a person into becoming a Catholic with either bible, so long as the person doesn't personally get to read either bible...

[NYer]

Judas “fell” away. He may have sat at table but he had already decided to betray his Lord.

[verga]

I rely on the real experts as I have told you before.

Your experts don't read very well. Two different words were used. Jesus used anothon which means from above. Nicodemus used deuteron, which means secondly.

[verga]

I will pray for you as well.

[NYer]

And in doing so, the Roman church must needfully ignore that Yeshua Himself explains that He is speaking of spirit.

And in posting this comment, you have bypassed or ignored this post.

[Iscool]

And always will till they are born again. Very tough attempting to get “born again and Spirit filled” thru to the natural man.

Doesn't really seem to sink in til it happens...

[NKP_Vet]

When I baptised into the Catholic Church i WAS BORN AGAIN.
You don’t have to get baptised twice.

Silly, fundamentalist Jimmy Swaggart nonsense. Speaking of scripture that fundamentalist seem to think they are the experts at, where in the Bible does it mention an alter call?
Protestant churches don’t even have alters. Where does it say Sola Sciptura?

[aMorePerfectUnion]

“Judas “fell” away. He may have sat at table but he had already decided to betray his Lord.”

Actually Satan entered into Judas after the events discussed in your posts. Ex. Luke 22:3

[CynicalBear]

>> Here is the problem with self taught protestants.<<

Can’t you get it through your head that your arguing with Strong’s, Thayer’s, NASEC, Englishman’s and others rather than with me on the meaning of words?

Good grief. In John 3:4 deuteron is used which means “a second time”. It clearly indicates he understood Jesus to mean he would have to be born a second time or “again”.

>> Nicodemus never says again (Palon) he says Secondly (Deuteron) <<

ROFL! Yeah, “secondly” or according to Strong’s, Thayer’s et el “a second time” aka “again”.

[editor-surveyor]

While we’re on “funny stuff,” perhaps you can explain how “the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh” in John 6:4, when Yeshua and his disciples were busy feeding 5000 men and their families with leavened barley loves, and after the feeding they turned away from Jerusalem, toward Kfar Nahum, and never go up to Jerusalem for any “passover.”

Are we to believe that Yeshua disobeyed and fed the 5000 with leavened bread, and didn’t go to the feast? And then just 13 days later they found themselves at Jerusalem for the feast of Sukkot, which is 6 months after Passover?

I’m sure that you will be able to explain this impossible situation.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

“...where in the Bible does it mention an alter call?...”

If I remember correctly, it is right next to the incense, candle, indulgence and holy water section...